Research and development (R&D) investment by European companies is on the rise, according to The 2012 EU Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends, a European Commission report released on 20 August. The survey of 1,000 large companies across all sectors predicts an average R&D boost of 4% a year until 2014. Chemical companies project an increase of 5.5%, and oil and gas producers 4.6%. “Employment costs are more than half of total R&D costs,” says Alexander Tübke at the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies in Seville, Spain, a co-author of the report, “so an important share of R&D increases should translate into new employment.” But, Tübke notes, any resulting researcher recruitment is likely to be in countries with lower labour costs, such as India and China.