Germany’s chemical and pharmaceutical industries once again expanded investment on research in 2023, even as major firms continued to warn of growing competition from abroad, an industry trade group reported on Thursday. The combined research budgets for companies in the industry rose to €15.5 billion ($17.2 billion) in 2023, an increase of 4% compared to the year before, the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) said. The industry group forecast spending to rise slightly again in 2024 to €15.8 billion. However, the VCI is forecasting hardly any growth in research budgets in Germany and i…