Innovation Union Scoreboard

From 2010 to 2015, the European Commission's annual European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) was published under the title Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS). Since 2016, its original name is used again.

The report - renamed to European Innovation Scoreboard as of 2016^[1] - is an instrument of the European Commission, developed under the Lisbon Strategy and revised after the adoption of the Europe2020 Strategy to provide a comparative assessment of the innovation performance of EU Member States. Together with the Regional Innovation Scoreboard, it forms a comprehensive benchmarking and monitoring system of research and innovation trends and activities in Europe.

The most recent edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard was published on 14 July 2016, revealing the following results:

Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden are Innovation Leaders with innovation performance well above that of the EU average. Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and the UK are Strong Innovators with innovation performance above or close to that of the EU average. The performance of Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, and Spain is below that of the EU average. These countries are Moderate Innovators. Bulgaria and Romania are Modest Innovators with innovation performance well below that of the EU average.

In selected areas of innovation, the EU leaders are: Sweden – human resources and quality of academic research; Finland – financial framework conditions; Germany – private investment in innovation; Belgium – innovation networks and collaboration; and Ireland – innovation in small and medium-sized companies.

The key driver of becoming an Innovation Leader is to adopt a balanced innovation system which combines an appropriate level of public and private investment, effective innovation partnerships among companies and with academia, as well as a strong educational basis and excellent research. The economic impact of innovation needs to manifest itself in terms of sales and exports of innovative products as well as in employment.

Over an eight-year period (2008-2015), performance has been improving for the EU as a whole, and for as many as 21 Member States, with growth having been highest for Latvia and Malta. However, for seven Member States, long-term performance growth has been negative, with the most negative growth rate observed for Romania. Despite the positive performance growth for many Member States for 2008-2015, there has been a trend reversal when comparing the years before and after 2012, with many Member States experiencing negative performance growth for 2012-2015. Most recently (2014-2015), as many as 17 Member States have experienced negative growth. The process of convergence in performance differences between Member States – as observed in previous reports since 2012 – appears to have come to a halt.

At global level, the European Union continues to be less innovative than South Korea, the United States of America and Japan, but performance differences with the last two countries have become smaller. South Korea has managed to improve its performance at a much faster pace than the EU over the last eight years. The EU still has a considerable performance lead over many other countries, including China. However, China is catching up, with a performance growth rate five times that of the EU.[4] [5]

Regional Innovation Scoreboard

Every two years, the European Innovation Scoreboard is accompanied by a Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS).^[2]

The Regional Innovation Scoreboard is a regional extension of the European Innovation Scoreboard, assessing the innovation performance of European regions on a limited number of indicators. The most recent RIS 2016 covers 214 regions across 22 EU countries and Norway. In addition, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Malta are included at country level. The Regional Innovation Scoreboard is accompanied by a methodology report.^[3]

The RIS 2016 revealed that Europe's most innovative regions are located in the most innovative countries, although regional innovative hubs exist in moderate innovator countries: Piemonte and Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Italy, País Vasco in Spain and Bratislavský kraj in Slovakia. The report also demonstrated that specialisation in Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) increases regional innovation performance.^[4]

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