Innovation grows the EU’s knowledge economy, it enhances our competitiveness and it creates a prosperous future for all Member States. This is why innovation features prominently in the ten priorities of the Juncker Commission.

The European Innovation Scoreboard 2016 gives an assessment of the EU and Member States' innovation performance, as well as that of key international competitors. Its 25 indicators give a detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Member States on the basis of important innovation drivers − from research systems and public and private investment, to the economic effects of innovation. Also, for the first time, we include a chapter on expected short-term changes in EU innovation performance to help anticipate future trends.

This edition of the Scoreboard reveals several interesting developments. The EU has a lead in innovation performance over many other countries, while China is making swift progress. In addition, the EU is catching up with Japan and the United States, but is still losing ground to South Korea.

The Report includes also analysis about non EU Member States as Switzerland (CH), Israel (IL), Iceland (IS), Norway (NO), Serbia (RS), Turkey (TR), the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MK), and Ukraine (UA).