3M, Medtronic maintain R&D spending despite economy

The economy might be down, but R&D funding is up at many local companies.

That’s according to the Business Journal’s inaugural Top 25 List for R&D spending.

3M tops the list with $1.4 billion in R&D over the past four quarters. Also in the top five are Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, Valspar and Lawson Software.

The biggest increase in R&D spending over the past four quarters was at SurModics. Imation saw its R&D spending fall off during the same period by 38 percent. More here.