Top R&D investing companies based in the EU expect their global research and development (R&D) investments to grow by 5% annually from 2011 to 2013. This is more than double last year's expectations, and represents a significant upturn from the 2.6% R&D cuts in investment implemented by these companies in 2009. The companies surveyed also revealed that an average of 27% of their annual sales comes from innovative products introduced in the past three years, demonstrating again that innovation is the key to commercial success and to job creation. These figures were published today by the European Commission in its sixth EU Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends, a survey of the R&D investment expectations of the 1000 European companies which invest most in R&D.