The strategic reinvention: Emerging trends from our R&D Survey 2026
Research & Development (R&D) leaders are operating under an intensifying mix of pressures. R&D has become increasingly critical to long-term enterprise competitiveness; at the same time, leaders are being asked to move faster, integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital technologies into workflows, improve commercialization outcomes, and justify investment decisions amidst increasing scrutiny.
While everyone likes to talk about innovation, far fewer conversations focus on how modern R&D organizations are evolving how they bring those innovations to market.
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That’s why we launched our 2026 Trends in R&D Survey earlier this year.
We’re currently analyzing inputs from more than 250 senior R&D leaders globally across industries including life sciences, chemicals and materials, manufacturing, consumer products, automotive, energy, and advanced technology. While the full research will be published soon, several themes are already beginning to emerge.
One of the clearest early signals is that R&D investment remains remarkably resilient. Despite growing pressure around capital efficiency and measurable business outcomes, 86% of respondents still expect R&D investment to increase moderately over the next 12 months.
At the same time, the survey suggests that for many organizations, the question is no longer whether R&D should have continued investment, but how to improve the speed, adaptability, and effectiveness of R&D execution in order to maximize that investment.
Tensions reshaping today’s R&D organizations
Our research goal wasn’t simply to measure budgets or ask whether organizations are “investing in AI” (though we do capture those insights).
What we wanted to better understand is how R&D leaders are navigating growing complexity around portfolio management, technology adoption, organizational adaptability, talent challenges, governance, commercialization, and operational effectiveness.
A recurring theme we hear from our conversations with R&D executives is the balancing act many organizations are managing between maintaining operational discipline and investing in longer-term innovation priorities. Hence, this was another key area we wanted to explore the quantitative, survey-based approach; we asked which tradeoffs are creating the most tension in the R&D organization: for instance, is it speed of experimentation vs. scientific rigor, innovation ambition vs. cost discipline, centralization vs. local autonomy.
Similarly, we wanted to learn where organizations are making progress versus where friction still exists. For example, early responses suggest organizations are already investing heavily in areas such as AI-enabled experimentation, advanced modeling and simulation, and digitally augmented testing. At the same time, we wanted to know what the most common limitations are constraining AI’s impact in R&D environments.
The role of the R&D leader is changing
Another key objective was to better understand how the role of the R&D leader itself may be evolving.
Historically, many R&D leaders were primarily measured on scientific or technical execution. Today, though, the role has become much broader and more commercially integrated, with leaders expected to think across portfolio strategy, investment prioritization, workforce capability, ecosystem partnerships, AI integration, operational agility, and long-term competitive positioning.
Many of the questions explored through the survey reflect this reality. How much flexibility do organizations really have to reallocate R&D investment when priorities change? Are governance structures accelerating experimentation or slowing it down? Which capability gaps are becoming most limiting? How are organizations balancing long-term innovation ambitions with growing pressure for proving revenue?
How organizations are primarily evaluating R&D success was also considered. We asked which performance metrics most strongly influence today’s R&D investment and portfolio decisions. To what degree has emphasis on technical milestones, pipeline progression, and project execution metrics shifted toward measures such as time-to-market, portfolio Return on Investment (RoI), strategic alignment, and the ability to translate R&D priorities into measurable business outcomes?
What we’re watching for
As we continue evaluating the full findings, one of the areas we’re most interested in understanding is where the biggest differences in R&D behavior are actually emerging.
While industry and geography clearly matter, early signals suggest organizational maturity and operational adaptability may increasingly become the more important differentiators. Some organizations already appear highly advanced in areas such as digitally augmented experimentation, AI integration, ecosystem collaboration, and portfolio flexibility. Others are still much earlier in the journey, particularly around governance, operational agility, and capability development.
One of the broader questions we have is whether the most meaningful differences in R&D performance over the next few years will ultimately be driven less by industry and more by how effectively organizations operationalize innovation, integrate emerging technologies, and adapt their operating models as priorities evolve.
In the coming months, we’ll be sharing findings from the survey across areas including R&D investment trends, AI and digital integration, portfolio strategy, organizational agility, capability gaps, collaboration models, and evolving operating models for R&D organizations.
There’s obviously no single blueprint for what “good” looks like in R&D right now. But there are clearly important patterns beginning to emerge, and we’re looking forward to exploring them further through our research.
If you enjoyed this blog and would like to learn more, register for the upcoming webinar Reshaping R&D Spend for Accelerated Advantage – Everest Group Research Portal Unlocking value through R&D process transformation in the age of AI – Everest Group Rese which delves deeper into the survey findings around R&D investment trends.
If you’d like to continue this discussion, please contact Jillian Walker ([email protected]).