Press Release 18/06/2015
The Basque Country is at the same level as countries with high innovation in 2015 according to the Innovation Union Scoreboard IUS
The value of the indicator has risen slightly since 2014
The Innovation Union Scoreboard - IUS 2015 - stood at 0.504 for the Basque Country, according to data prepared by Eustat, meaning that it is at the same level as the group of countries with high innovation.
The IUS scoreboard is continuously revised - both its component indicators and its calculation formula - as every year the most up-to-date data on the countries is incorporated, requiring the entire series to be recalculated. Furthermore, this year a new country, Croatia, became a member of the EU.
The Basque Country slightly increased the value of its indicator (0.501 in 2014 compared to 0.504 in 2015). Regarding the EU-28, it maintained a gap of five hundredths, whilst compared to Spain the gap widened, from nine to twelve hundredths in 2015.
Graph 1. Innovation Union Scoreboard IUS 2015. Basque Country and EU-28
Source: Eustat -Panel of innovation indicators (IUS)- and European Commission
Note: The grey columns correspond to the values of the previous year, calculated according to IUS 2015
The IUS 2015 Innovation Union Scoreboard attempts to measure the extent to which countries' economies have the capacity to develop innovation activities. The EU-28 countries are grouped into four categories, according to the rating scored and their position in relation to the European average. In the first group, innovation leader countries, were those countries that scored a rating more than 120% of the average: they were Sweden (0.74), Denmark (0.74), Finland (0.68) and Germany (0.68), although the country that was at the forefront of innovation in Europe was Switzerland (0.81).
In the second group, countries with high innovation, were those that achieved a rating of between 90% and 120% of the European average. In this case, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, France, Austria and Slovenia, had ratings of between 0.65 and 0.53. The Basque Country, with a rating of 5.0, would be placed in this group, reaching 90.8% of the EU-28 average.
Following these, the third group, countries with moderate innovation (between 50% and 90% of the average) included Estonia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Italy, Malta, Spain and six other countries, with ratings between 0.49 and 0.28. Lastly, in the fourth group, countries with low innovation (under 50% of the average) were Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania, obtaining between 0.27 and 0.20 points.
The IUS 2015 Innovation Union Scoreboard is structured into three main blocks, with eight dimensions, for a total of 25 indicators.
The Basque Country stood out in two of these dimensions with respect to the European average: Human Resources and Linkages & Entrepreneurship.
In Human Resources, a dimension that measures the availability of highly qualified and trained individuals as key for innovation, two of its three indicators stood out with respect to the European average: the percentage of the "Population aged 30-34 with tertiary education", rose to 44.2%, with the community average standing at 36.9%; and the percentage of "Young people aged 20-24 with at least upper secondary education" was 85.6% in the Autonomous Region and 81.0% in the EU-28. However, in this dimension, the “New doctorate graduates aged 25-34” was below the European average, standing at 1.53 per thousand in the Basque Country, while in the EU-28 it was 1.80 per thousand.
Regarding Linkages & Entrepreneurship, which takes into account the entrepreneurial efforts and collaboration in innovation with other companies and institutions, in the Basque Country the indicators that recorded the percentage of "SMEs with internal innovation" stood out, reaching 32.1% compared to 28.7% in the EU-28, and the percentage of "Innovating SMEs that collaborate in innovation" was 14.6% in the Autonomous Region compared to 10.3% in the European Union.
In three other dimensions, Research Systems, Firm Investments and Economic Effects, the Basque Country has similar, though slightly lower, figures.
Regarding the level of openness, excellence and attractiveness of the Research System, a dimension that measures the international competitiveness of the scientific framework, the number of "International scientific co-publications per million inhabitants" stood out - 867 in the Basque Country compared to 363 in Europe - as did the percentage of "Scientific Publications most cited internationally" (excellent), 11.3% for the Basque Country and 11.0% for the EU-28. On the other hand, figures were lower for the indicator "Non-EU doctorate students amongst the total of doctorate students in the country", 13.8% in the Basque Country and 25.5% in the EU-28.
As far as Firm Investments is concerned, a dimension that measures spending on R&D and Innovation in the business sector, the “Private spending on R&D as a percentage over GDP” stood out, with 1.50% for the Basque Country and 1.29% for the European average. On the other hand, the “Non-R&D innovation expenditure” as a percentage of turnover stood at 0.41% in the Basque Country whilst in the EU-28 it stood at 0.69%.
For its part, in Economic Effects, a dimension that records the economic success of innovation on employment, exports and sales due to innovation activities, the Basque Country obtained better results than the European average in "Sales of new-to-firm and new-to-market innovations". However, the other indicators of this dimension, "Employment in knowledge-intensive activities" "Medium and high-tech product exports", "Knowledge-intensive services exports" and "Licence and patent revenues from abroad" registered lower figures in the Basque Country.
In the two remaining dimensions, Finance & Support and Intellectual & Innovative Assets, the rating was clearly lower than the European average. Nevertheless, the indicator "SMEs with product or process innovations" performed well, as here the Basque Country obtained a better result. In the rest, "Public Expenditure on R&D", "Availability of risk capital", “PCT Patent applications”, "EU trademarks", “EU Designs” and "SMEs with marketing or organisational innovations" the values obtained were lower than the European average.
Innovation Union Scoreboard, IUS 2015
http://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/innovation/facts-figures/scoreboards/index_en.htm
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tlf: 945 01 75 62
Further press releases on Panel of innovation indicators (IUS)