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Ireland Top in EU at Putting Innovation to Work
- 03 April 2013
The European Commission's Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) 2013 places Ireland as the No. 1 performer in the EU for innovation with 'Economic effects' - meaning that Ireland is top of the EU in making knowledge and innovation work for the real economy.
The 'Economic effects' category uses 5 indicators for economic success:
- employment in knowledge-intensive activities,
- the contribution of medium and high-tech product exports to the trade balance,
- exports of knowledge-intensive services,
- sales due to innovation activities and licenses, and
- patent revenues from selling technologies abroad.
Overall, Ireland continues to improve its performance across the innovation scoreboard, while it is categorised as an innovation follower with an above average performance in research and innovation.
According to the latest report, Ireland's relative strengths are in Human resources and Economic effects whereas its relative weaknesses are in Finance and support and Firm investments.
High growth is observed for License and patent revenues from abroad. A strong decline is observed for Non-R&D innovation expenditures. Growth performance in Firm investments is well below average.
Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, responsible for Research, Innovation and Science, said: "Innovation should now be at the heart of all Member States' policy agendas. Our latest State of the Innovation Union report, also published today, shows we made progress in 2012 on some of the big ticket items like the Unitary Patent and new rules for venture capital funds, but we need to go further in order to avoid an innovation divide in Europe."
The annual Innovation Union Scoreboard provides a comparative assessment of the research and innovation performance of the EU27 Member States and the relative strengths and weaknesses of their research and innovation systems. The table below shows all EU Member States innovation performance.
Figure: EU Member States' innovation performance
Note: Average performance is measured using a composite indicator building on data for 24 indicators, going from a lowest possible performance of 0 to a maximum possible performance of 1. Average performance reflects performance in 2010/2011 (due to a lag in data availability).
Source: Envirocentre - Ireland Top in EU at Putting Innovation to Work
