"in the recent years" is a valid and usable phrase in written English. You can use it to refer to a period of time within the past few years, typically two or three years. For example, "The population of the city has been rising rapidly in the recent years."
The Internet has seen tremendous growth in the recent years.
Nuclear cardiology instrumentation has evolved significantly in the recent years.
In the recent years, many researchers conducted laboratory corefloods, and several companies carried field tests.
The combustion characteristics of promising alternative fuels have been studied extensively in the recent years.
Thus several approaches have been suggested for numerical simulation of shot peening in the recent years.
And then, also, we found the transaction volume has dropped in the recent years.
In the recent years, we investigated the question of, to which extent this property holds.
In the recent years, finding the biocompatible materials for biological and biomedical application is increasing ever.
Also for analytical procedures an increasing interest for this concept exists in the recent years.
It attracted some attention in the recent years.
Data mining has received unprecedented focus in the recent years.
Ludwig does not simply clarify my doubts with English writing, it enlightens my writing with new possibilities
Simone Ivan Conte
Software Engineer at Adobe, UK