EUREKA worries over innovation scoreboard division

The EU’s Innovation Scoreboard is showing increasing division between countries, worrying EUREKA.

In a statement, EUREKA chairwoman Kristin Danielsen, Pedro de Sampaio Nunes, head of the EUREKA secretariat, and former chairman Okan Kara, pointed to the widening of the innovation divide: “EUREKA has observed this trend amongst its 40+ member countries, within the EU but also beyond, signalling a worrying process of divergence in innovation performance.”

Enhancing co-operation with “those members that are not currently realising their great potential” was emphasised as one of EUREKA’s main objectives.

The Innovation Union Scoreboard has shown little progress in the reduction of the innovation gap between EU countries. Northern and central European countries lead the way while southern and eastern Europe appear to be performing poorly in most indicators of innovation performance, including higher education, intellectual assets, and innovation in SMEs.

The Innovation Scoreboard also makes apparent the importance of public R&D expenditure in a context of continuous decline in venture capital investments and non-R&D innovation investment in companies – an area where EUREKA has an important role to play as a driver for public investment in trans-border research projects.

Topping the EU-wide scoreboard are Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Finland, whilst Bulgaria, Latvia and Romania find themselves at the bottom.