In an attempt to help countries and regions identify the areas they need to address, the annual Innovation Union Scoreboard provides a comparative assessment of the research and innovation performance of the EU Member States.
This year the European Commission’s Innovation Union Scoreboard reveals that the EU’s overall level of innovation has remained stable. However, the crisis has left an impact on the private sector’s innovative activity: the number of innovative firms is in decline, as are SMEs’ innovations, patent applications, exports of high-tech products, venture capital investments and sales of innovative products. While there have been improvements in human resources, business investments in research and development and the quality of science, these are not enough to result in a stronger innovation performance.
According to the Scoreboard, Sweden followed by Denmark, Finland and Germany are the “Innovation Leaders” with innovation performance well above that of the EU average, while Malta, Latvia and Bulgaria are considered to be the fastest growing innovators. Compared to 2014, innovation performance has increased in 15 EU countries, while it declined in 13 others.
To learn more, please visit the EC’s website.
