Corporate Research & Development Survey 2018

Overview

Already leaping into its Sixth Edition, the Deloitte Central Europe Corporate R&D Survey continues to engage with companies in the region to ascertain the trends in R&D and attitudes towards the current climate of tax incentives and grants. Combining the knowledge of our field experts and indispensable data provided by our survey respondents, we aim to provide an insightful report on R&D in the CE region in May 2018. This year our survey will take place in nine CE countries: Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Be part of the survey

Our survey is now live and we invite you to participate and share with us the outlook of your company’s R&D plans and any difficulties you face in R&D. It should take around 10 minutes to complete and your responses will be anonymous and completely confidential.

We would like to thank you in advance for your participation and continuing support to this report. Should you wish us to send you a copy, you may choose to provide your email address at the end of the anonymous survey.

Key findings from our previous report

• A comparison of the 2016 results with last year’s survey shows that companies are planning a greater increase in their R&D investments, over both the next one to two years (45%) and the next three to five years (57%).
• The principal drivers that are motivating companies to invest more in R&D include the availability of more types of benefits, enabling them to use a combination of grants, tax deductions etc. and the availability of skilled and experienced researchers.
• Most companies (71%) are continuing to collaborate with third parties, such as universities and research institutes, which is proving beneficial for both parties.
• The key concerns expressed by companies from all surveyed countries include the uncertainties they face when the tax authorities review the subsidies and tax deductions they have used, the uncertainties in identification of R&D activities and a scarcity of qualified and experienced research personnel.
• The highest proportion of companies mostly use a company secrets policy to protect their know-how and intellectual property (69%), followed by patents and utility designs (40%) and trade marks (31%).