Innovation Union Scoreboard 2014: EU more innovative but the differences between Member States are still high and diminish only slowly.

The EU and all EU Member States have become more innovative in recent years. As a result, the EU has closed half of the innovation gap towards the US.

However, the differences in the innovation performance within the EU are still very high and diminish only slowly. The innovation gap widens at regional level where the innovation performance has worsened in almost one fifth of EU regions according to the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2014, which complements the IUS 2014.

The overall ranking within the EU remains relatively stable, with Sweden at the top, followed by Denmark, Germany and Finland. Portugal, Estonia and Latvia are the countries that have most improved over the last years. Most progress has been made in the openness and attractiveness of the EU research system as well as business innovation collaboration and the commercialisation of knowledge as measured by licence and patent revenues from abroad. However, the growth of public R&D expenditures over the last years was offset by a continuous decline in venture capital investments and non-R&D innovation investments in companies.

More detailed information is provided in the press release and in the memo.
Report is attached here below (14Mb)