Siemens 2012 Annual Report Download - page 34

32
For 165 years, we’ve been providing answers to the challeng-
es of our day – in the areas of healthcare, energy, industry
and infrastructure. Few companies have more researchers
and developers working to create innovative products and
solutions worldwide. In a record number of research partner-
ships, our R&D employees are shaping technological progress
more actively and openly than ever before.
For us, progress means placing trust
in people with a pioneering spirit
Never completely satisfied, always looking for better solu-
tions, taking personal responsibility for progress and
blazing new trails in technology – this strategy has made
us the powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineer-
ing that we are today.
The latest figures confirm our power of innovation. Our R&D
employees are now reporting more than twice as many inven-
tions per day as in 2001. In fiscal 2012, we filed 8,900 invention
reports, some 5% more than a year earlier. During the same
period, we increased the number of our patent first filings by
about 7% to 4,600, making us once again a leader in the world-
wide patent statistics and No. 1 in Europe.
Our innovations impact many areas of life – transportation,
industry and healthcare, for instance. Today, people all around
the world rely on trains, metros and light-rail systems from
Siemens to provide them with safe, ecofriendly transport to and
from their homes and places of work. In industry, our product
lifecycle management (PLM) software is making it possible to
develop, simulate and test products in the virtual world and
to model entire production processes before a single screw is
manufactured in the real world. In hospitals, our innovative
liver fibrosis test is enabling doctors to examine patients
suffering from chronic liver disease without having to conduct
time-consuming, potentially dangerous biopsies. And last but
not least, innovations from Siemens are helping shape the
future of energy.
Corporate Technology (CT), our central research department,
has overall responsibility for our strategic and cross-unit
research activities. More than 7,000 CT experts cooperate
across team and national boundaries to ensure that we main-
tain our technology leadership. Products with major profit
potential on the world’s innovation-driven growth markets are
developed and then incorporated into our day-to-day business
operations. Our key research focuses today include electric
mobility, sustainable urban development and next-generation
biotechnology.
We’ve introduced a policy of open innovation. In more than
1,000 research partnerships, we’re facilitating targeted infor-
mation exchange and cooperation with leading international
universities and research institutes worldwide.
Technology and innovation – for us, that means securing our
technological basis, helping shape the future with innovative
solutions and strengthening our integrated technology com-
pany. The pioneering spirit of our employees is making us
strong – every day and all around the world.
  ,  -
   ,  -
../
In fiscal 2012, we invested some
€4.2 billion in research and development.