EUROPEAN COMMISSION

PRESS RELEASE

32 Smith Square, London SW1P 3EU - http://ec.europa.eu/uk

ISEC/11/2011

1 February 2011

 New Innovation Union Scoreboard: main competitors outpace the EU

The EU is failing to close the innovation performance gap with its main international competitors: the US and Japan, according to a key pan-European report on innovation performance. The report – the Innovation Union Scoreboard 2010 – also indicates that although the trends in most EU Member States are promising despite the economic crisis, progress is not fast enough. While the EU still maintains a clear lead over the emerging economies of India and Russia, Brazil on the other hand is making steady progress, and China is catching up rapidly. Within the EU, Sweden is the most impressive performer followed by Denmark, Finland and Germany. The UK ranks high in the second group – the so-called "innovation followers".

The United Kingdom outperforms the EU average (detailed information and graphs in Annex) on a number of the 25 indicators, with clear strengths in human resources and open, excellent and attractive research systems. However, the league champions score better on elements such as intellectual assets (e.g. patent and trademark applications or license and patents revenues from abroad). The results show that successful countries have a...