Target 9.5: Enhance research and innovation
Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
Global R&D was about USD 2.75 trillion in 2023, nearly 2 percent of world GDP. In leading economies the private sector funds most of it, 92 percent in Israel versus 2.7 percent in Egypt. The R&D budgets of listed technology, pharmaceutical and industrial firms are therefore a necessary input, especially where they locate R&D in developing countries. UNIDO's finding that industrial firms hold about 60 percent of all green patents worldwide underscores the corporate share of the innovation the target seeks. Public research funding and education remain equally necessary, so owners supply a necessary input and governments must also act.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Coordinates collective investor engagement with pharmaceutical companies and supplies benchmarking data on governance of access, product delivery, licensing and research and development for low- and middle-income countries, with more than 145 investors holding over USD 22 trillion committed to using it in stewardship.
Coordinated member filings at pharmaceutical companies asking how the public money that paid for COVID-19 research and development is reflected in pricing and access decisions.
2 campaigns on record
Disclose how government funding of research and development relates to pricing and access strategies, and at Moderna and Pfizer set out a strategy for transferring intellectual property so generic manufacturers can produce the products.
With Oxfam America
Result: not stated in source
The public investment proposals were withdrawn at Pfizer and Moderna; of 16 proposals filed at seven pharmaceutical companies, 12 survived SEC challenges and went to a vote.
Report on whether and how the company's receipt of public financial support for developing and manufacturing COVID-19 preventives and therapeutics is taken into account in decisions affecting access, such as pricing.
Result: not stated in source
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.