Catching up with the US and Japan

The innovation gap that separates the EU from the US and Japan is getting smaller, according to the European Innovation Scorecard figures for 2006 released earlier this year.

The report attributes the EU’s shrinking innovation gap to increased education and broadband penetration compared to Japan and increased research and development (R&D) and patents compared to the US. Sweden is the leading country in the report for the fifth year in a row, which ranks EU countries, plus Norway, Switzerland, Croatia, Turkey, Croatia, the US and Japan.

The report divides EU countries into those that are ‘innovation leaders’, ‘innovation followers’, ‘catching up’ and ‘trailing’. Innovation leaders are those countries that score well in three categories of ‘innovation outputs’ and two categories of ‘innovation inputs’ considered by the study. This year’s innovation leaders were Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Japan and Germany.

Innovation inputs are structural factors necessary for innovation to take place, such as education, R&D spending, broadband penetration, and early-stage venture capital investments. Innovation outputs are the effects brought about by innovation, such as exports of high-technology products and number of patents.

In addition to the European scorecard, the report contained a Global Innovation Scorecard, ranking EU performance with "other major R&D spenders and emerging economies" based on a smaller set of 12 indicators. Leading the global index were Finland, Sweden, the US, Singapore and Israel. Regions of Europe were also ranked based on local innovation performance.

The innovation gap that separates the EU from the US and Japan is getting smaller, according to the European Innovation Scorecard figures for 2006 released earlier this year.