| Series Title | European Voice |
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| Series Details | Vol.12, No.1, 12.1.06 |
| Publication Date | 12/01/2006 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 12/01/06 Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany are European leaders in innovation while Spain, Poland, Slovakia and Estonia are the laggards, according to the EU's fifth Innovation Scoreboard, published by the European Commission today (12 January). If trends continue, the innovation gap between the EU and Japan will increase and the EU will not close the gap with the US. Member states are ranked according to five aspects of innovation - education, research and development spending, entrepreneurship, technology employment and output and intellectual property. The scoreboard places the Nordic countries plus Germany at the top of the ladder, headed by Sweden. The other large EU countries, plus the Netherlands, Ireland, Austria and Belgium, are showing an "average performance" in promoting innovation, while the majority of new member states plus Portugal and Greece are playing 'catch up'. At the bottom of the pile are Spain, Poland, Slovakia and Estonia, which are showing negative trends in innovation for differing reasons. Spain, for example, is suffering from poor rates of higher education that are currently at only 52% of the EU average. Estonia, while showing a very good performance in education and entrepreneurship, is failing to invest enough in business R&D and translate its innovation into sales of new products or patents. Innovation in Europe still lags far behind the US and Japan: the innovation gap with Japan actually grew in 2005. According to the Commission's report, 70% of this gap is due to IT spending, the number of people with higher education and the number of US-granted patents. "The innovation scoreboard clearly shows that we have to do more for innovation," Enterprise Commissioner Günter Verheugen said. But the fallout from the recent battle over EU spending is likely to see significant funds stripped from the EU's planned Competitiveness and Innovation Programme from 2007. Analysis of the results of the fifth edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), published on 12 January 2006. The EIS includes innovation indicators and trend analyses for all 25 European Union (EU) Member States, as well as for Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, the United States and Japan. |
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| Source Link | Link to Main Source http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Business and Industry, Culture, Education and Research |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
