The annual European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) provides a comparative assessment of the research and innovation performance of EU Member States and selected third countries, and the relative strengths and weaknesses of their research and innovation systems.
This report helps countries assess areas in which they need to concentrate their efforts in order to boost innovation performance.
All of the EU-plus best performing Six Innovation Leaders in this report, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands and Belgium, have seen an acceleration in performance since 2021.
Performance has improved the most in Finland due to strong increases in SMEs with business process innovations, sales of innovative products, and broadband penetration.
Finland has recently closed in on Denmark, who is most innovative EU Member State in 2023.
Denmark has seen substantial increases in SMEs with product innovations, SMEs with business process innovations, and employment in innovative enterprises.
Belgium came with substantial increases in foreign doctorate students, SMEs with business process innovations, and Non-R&D innovation expenditures.
Sweden’s performance improved strongest because of substantial increases in SMEs with product innovations, SMEs with business process innovations, and sales of innovative products.
Netherlands’ performance growth is above that of the EU due to substantial increases in venture capital expenditures, doctorate graduates, and broadband penetration.
The second group ranking are Strong Innovators with performance around 120% of the EU average. Norway is in this group just behind Austria. Norway’s performance is well above the average of the Strong Innovators and increasing at a rate higher than the EU .
Graph: European Union – European Innovation Scoreboard Report 2023.
