The European Commission has published this year's Innovation Scoreboard, with Sweden again ahead of the pack going by key markers. Malta, The Netherlands and Spain showed “good progress” in innovation, said the Commission, but Europe overall was still behind other markets, it stressed.
Carlos Moedas, commissioner for research, science and innovation, said: "The Scoreboard shows yet again that Europe is strong in science but underperforming on innovation. Our proposals for Horizon Europe, the next EU research and innovation programme, will accelerate innovation along the full value chain and support the identification and scale-up of breakthrough innovations."
The Commission says the EU is “catching up” with key competitors such as Canada, Japan and the US. But closing this innovation gap and “maintaining the lead over China” will require a “concerted effort” to deepen Europe's innovation potential, it said. Horizon Europe has been given a proposed budget of €100bn for the period 2021-2027. But EU funding alone will not suffice, said the Commission. “To maintain and improve the European way of life, a concerted effort by the public and private sector is required,” it said.
Sweden is once again the EU innovation leader, followed by Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, the UK and Luxembourg (which joins the “top innovators” group this year). Germany drops to the group of “strong innovators”. Over the last eight years, innovation performance has increased in 18 EU countries and decreased in ten. Performance has increased most in Lithuania, Malta, The Netherlands and the UK, while it has decreased most in Cyprus and Romania.
In selected areas of innovation, the EU leaders are:
Denmark – human resources and innovation-friendly environment
Luxembourg – attractive research systems
France – finance and support
Ireland – innovation in SMEs, employment impacts and sales impacts
Belgium – innovation linkages and collaboration
Over the next two years, the EU's overall innovation performance is expected to improve by 6%, the Commission forecasts.
