New Survey Among R&D Managers Identifies a Clear Trend Toward Sourced Innovation and Increased Budgets

CLEVELAND, OH - January 28, 2004 - NineSigma, Inc., a Cleveland, Ohio-based innovation sourcing firm, has recently completed an anonymous survey with corporate R&D managers. Respondents clearly identified a growing trend toward open innovation practices in the next one to five years, and most predict increasing R&D budgets for the same time period.

Thirty percent of those surveyed expect more than half of their new product technologies will come from outside their own company, via open innovation practices, by the year 2008. Fifty-two percent of respondents expect their R&D spending levels to increase slightly in 2004, while thirty-three percent expect spending to increase significantly over the next five years.

The majority of these managers also expect their total number of R&D projects to double in the next five years. When asked, "What is the most important strategic objective for your R&D organization today?" 45 percent identified, "Increasing the rate of new product innovations" as most important, while 27 percent see "Accelerating time-to-market" as their most important objective.

The survey was anonymous and distributed to 5000 corporate R&D managers at small to large corporations. Respondents were commonly the most senior level executive responsible for R&D activities at their organizations. The 134 responses represent a 2.7% response rate.

A detailed summary of the results is available here.

About NineSigma

NineSigma serves the global research and development industry by facilitating "Open Innovation" strategies for clients seeking to acquire technical innovations developed outside their organization. NineSigma's clients are Fortune 500 companies spanning a variety of industries including automotive, biomedical, chemical, consumer products, defense, electronics, optics, pharmaceutical, and telecommunications among others. Through its proprietary Managed Exchange (M:X™) process that utilizes Ph.D.-level program managers, web-based tools, and a database of global solution providers, NineSigma matches technology seekers with unobvious or disruptive innovations faster, more effectively, and at a lower cost than conventional means. For more information on NineSigma, visit www.ninesigma.com .

NineSigma Contact:

  Bronwyn Monroe
  (216) 295-4822
  Marketing Manager