R&D organizations are slowly increasing the amount of R&D they outsource,
even as the work increases in complexity and political issues mount.
Outsourcing of various aspects of an organization's business functions has been happening for decades. In recent years, much of this work has been in the information technology (IT) area, although product development work and actual R&D for manufacturers has been working its way up the "food chain" as well, as suppliers and focused companies provide lower cost, faster response solutions to the sponsoring organizations' product needs.
The majority of outsourcing in the U.S. has been to other U.S.-based organizations (84%) that focus on mostly on manufacturing, although Asian (50%) and European (25%, multiple sources result in more than a 100% total) offshoring continues to take a bigger share. According to a recent reader survey (May 2007) by the editors of R&D Magazine, about 18% of those organizations outsourcing R&D have sent some of their work to China, and 19% have sent some of their work to India.
Due to the graphics in this article a PDF has been made available for you to download.
