The annual European Innovation Scoreboard, co-authored by Hugo Hollanders, Nordine Es-Sadki and Minna Kanerva, provides a comparative analysis of innovation performance in EU Member States, other European countries, and regional neighbours. It assesses relative strengths and weaknesses of national innovation systems and helps countries identify areas they need to address.
According to the 2016 Scoreboard, the EU is continuing to catch up with global innovation leaders. But innovation is still held back by low business investment and restrictive framework conditions, notably affecting SMEs. Sweden is once more the EU innovation leader, followed by Denmark, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands. The fastest growing innovators are Latvia, Malta, Lithuania, the Netherlands and the UK.
This year’s Scoreboard also includes a new forward-looking section focusing on recent developments and expected changes. The section discusses trend performance of the EU compared to that of its main international competitors and expected changes for 20 indicators, including six indicators built on fast-track data from the Community Innovation Survey. See the executive summary below.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY