Estonia moves higher in innovation ranking

  • 2010-04-28
  • By Ella Karapetyan

MOVING UP: Estonia is beating all predictions as it promotes state support for innovation.

TALLINN - According to the newly published final report of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), Estonia has risen to 12th place for its innovation efforts in 2009. With this ranking, Estonia is positioned along with Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia in the innovation followers group, which is only one step down from the innovation leaders group. Among this group, Cyprus, Estonia and Slovenia have each shown strong improvement, compared to 2008.

In first place on the Innovation Scoreboard for 2009 are Estonia’s neighboring countries, including Sweden, followed by Finland and Germany. Great Britain and Denmark also belong to the leader group. Estonia is trailed on the scoreboard by the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain and Portugal. However, from the Baltic States only Latvia is in the second-to-last position.
Estonia’s success has been supported primarily by the increased readiness of companies to invest, and the increase in utilizing innovations. While on the 2008 scoreboard Estonia was still below the EU average with its innovation indicators, according to this year’s scoreboard Estonia has surpassed the average. “This is an outstanding outcome, because in the 2007 final report it was predicted that it would take 10 years for Estonia to reach the middle group,” said press spokesperson for the Ministry of Economics and Communications Piret Jarvis.

In compiling the EIS, indicators regarding educated and skilled human resources are observed and compared among nations. The state’s activeness in supporting innovation and other opportunities for innovation are observed, as are the readiness of companies to invest in innovation and the readiness of businesses to co-operate in the name of innovation amongst themselves and with the public sector. A score is also given regarding intellectual property.
The number of companies that have brought innovative products or introduced something innovative within the company is also observed. A score is also given for how much innovation has affected economic development, for example in creating jobs or influencing exports.

The EIS is an instrument of the European Commission, developed under the Lisbon Treaty to provide a comparative assessment of the innovation performance of EU Member States. The European Innovation Scoreboard has been compiled since 2001. The scoreboard observes the innovation indicators of all 27 European Union member states.
The EIS provides an annual assessment of innovation performance across the EU and with other leading innovative nations. The assessment is based on a wide range of indicators covering structural conditions, knowledge creation, innovative efforts by firms, and output in terms of new products, services and intellectual property.