Press Release 02/11/2023

EUROPEAN INNOVATION SCOREBOARD (EIS) 2023

The Basque Country consolidated its position among the group of ‘strong innovator’ countries in 2023 and exceeded the EU-27 average, driven by ‘Framework conditions’ and ‘Investments’

‘Human resources’, ‘Firm investments’, ‘Digitalisation’, and ‘Environmental sustainability’ were the dimensions where the Basque Country ranked among the top positions for the EU-27

The Basque Country achieved a score of 0.601 in the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) for 2023, which placed it above the average of 0.548 for the EU-27 as a whole. This achievement was due to the high scores obtained in the ‘Framework conditions’ (0.683) and ‘Investments’ (0.666) blocks, according to Eustat data.

This figure places the Basque Country at the level of the group of ‘strong innovator’ countries, obtaining an average of between 100% and 125% of the equivalent figure for the EU-27. For its part, Spain was among the ‘moderate innovator’ countries, with a score of 0.489 (equivalent to 89.2% of the European average).

The EIS 2023 European Innovation Scoreboard attempts to measure the extent to which countries' economies have the capacity to develop innovation activities. It is divided into four main blocks of activity, which encompass 12 innovation dimensions (which themselves include a total of 32 indicators). Based on the scores obtained and their ranking in relation to the average for the EU-27, countries are placed in one of four categories: innovation leaders, strong innovators, moderate innovators, and emerging innovators.

The EIS undergoes continuous revision, and each year there are variations in terms of both its component indicators and its calculation formula. These changes mean that comparisons cannot be made with the EISs published in previous years. Each EIS provides data for an eight-year period, 2016-2023 in the case of EIS 2023, using the latest available data.

The first category, innovation leaders, contains those countries with a score that is more than 125% of the European Union average. There are five such countries: Denmark (0.753), Sweden (0.737), Finland (0.735), the Netherlands (0.705) and Belgium (0.689), although the country at the forefront of innovation in Europe is Switzerland (0.764).

In the second category, strong innovators, are those that achieved a score of between 100% and 125% of the average. There are six of these countries: Austria (0.656), Germany (0.645), Luxembourg (0.642), Ireland (0.634), Cyprus (0.577) and France (0.577). The Basque Country, with a score of 0.601, would be placed in this group between Ireland and Cyprus, reaching 109.7% of the EU-27 average.

The third category, moderate innovators, comprises countries that achieved between 70% and 100% of the average. There are 10 of these countries, listed in descending order below: Estonia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Malta, Portugal, Lithuania, Greece and Hungary. Their scores range from 0.540 (Estonia) to 0.385 (Hungary).

Lastly, the fourth category, emerging innovators, comprises six countries whose scores are less than 70% of the average. In descending order: Croatia, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania, whose scores ranged from 0.381 (Croatia) to 0.181 (Romania).

In this regard, the Basque Country stood out in two blocks when compared with the European average: ‘FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS’ and ‘INVESTMENTS’.

In the first block, ‘FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS’, the main drivers of innovation performance external to the firm are measured, and the Basque Country scored a rating of 0.68 compared to the EU average of 0.47. Moreover, the Basque Country attained a better score than the European average in all three of the dimensions that comprise this block: ‘Human resources’, ‘Attractive research systems’ and ‘Digitalisation’.

In ‘Human resources’, a dimension that measures the availability of a highly qualified and trained workforce as a key element of innovation, in the Basque Country two of the three indicators stood out with respect to the European average: the ‘New doctorate graduates in science and technology aged 25-34’ indicator stood at 1.05 per thousand in the Basque Country, while in the EU-27 it was 0.70 per thousand; and the ‘Percentage of the population aged 25-34 with tertiary education’ stood at 66.0%, compared to the European average of 42.0%. In the third indicator of this dimension, ‘Percentage of the population aged 25-64 involved in lifelong learning’, the Basque Country’s score of 11.7% was slightly lower than that of the EU-27 (11.9%). However, the score obtained for this dimension as a whole (0.69) was only exceeded by Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.

‘Attractive research systems’, a dimension that measures the international competitiveness of the scientific framework, is comprised of three indicators. Once again, the Basque Country stood out in two of them compared to the EU-27. Thus, the number of ‘International scientific co-publications per million inhabitants’ stood at 1,941.5 in the Basque Country compared to 1,279 in Europe. With regard to ‘Scientific publications among the top 10% most cited internationally’ (excellent), the Basque Country’s score was 9.81%, compared to 9.82% for the EU-27; and lastly, ‘Foreign doctorate students as a percentage of all doctorate students’ stood at 29.15% for the Basque Country compared to 17.81% for the EU-27.

The third and final dimension of this first block is ‘Digitalisation’, which measures the level of digital technology. In turn, it includes two indicators, and the Basque Country stood out in both. In ‘Broadband penetration’, it achieved a score of 74.5%, while the EU-27 average is 57.5%; and in ‘Individuals who have above basic overall digital skills’, the Basque Country’s score of 37% easily exceeded the EU average of 26.5%.

The second block, ‘INVESTMENTS’, examines public and private investment in research and innovation. The Basque Country’s score of 0.67 was once again higher than the European average (0.61). Three dimensions are examined in this block and in two of them, ‘Firm investments’ and ‘Use of information technologies’, the Basque Country scored higher than the EU average, while in the other, ‘Finance and support’, it was the EU that achieved a higher score.

‘Firm investments’. The Basque Country achieved a score of 0.74 in this dimension, placing it at the top of the EU-27 ranking behind only Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands. This dimension has three investment indicators, encompassing both R&D and other expenditure by companies for the purpose of innovation. For two of these indicators, namely ‘R&D expenditure in the business sector as a percentage of GDP’ and ‘Innovation expenditures per employee in innovative enterprises’, the Basque Country surpassed the EU, with a score of 1.63% and €12,170 compared to 1.49% and €7,505. However, in ‘Non-R&D innovation expenditures as a percentage of turnover’, the European Union, with 0.80%, was ahead of the Basque Country, with 0.69%.

‘Use of information technologies’. This dimension captures the use of information technologies through two indicators. In the first, ‘Enterprises providing ICT training’,

the Basque Country scored higher than the EU with 31.5% compared to 22.4%; while in the second, ‘Employed ICT specialists’ it was the EU with a score of 4.6 that slightly outperformed the Basque Country’s score of 4.5.

The last dimension of this second block, ‘Finance and support’, which measures the availability of finance for innovation projects and the support of governments for research and innovation activities, includes three indicators. In one of them, ‘Direct government funding and government tax support for business R&D’, the Basque Country’s score of 0.33 was higher than the EU average of 0.18. However, in the other two indicators, ‘R&D expenditure in the public sector (percentage of GDP)’ and ‘Venture capital expenditures (percentage of GDP)’, it was the EU that surpassed the Basque Country, with 0.76% compared to 0.48% and 0.21% compared to 0.07%, respectively.

In the third and fourth blocks that comprise the EIS, namely ‘INNOVATION ACTIVITIES’ (which examines innovation efforts at company level) and ‘IMPACTS’ (which considers the effects of firms’ innovation activities), the Basque Country obtained a score below the European average, i.e. 0.44 and 0.59 compared to 0.49 and 0.61, respectively. Even so, it is worth noting that there were two dimensions in which the Basque Country outperformed the EU.

In ‘Linkages’, a dimension that measures the collaborative efforts between innovative enterprises and also with the public sector, the Basque Country achieved a better score (0.61) than the EU-27 average (0.37) thanks to two indicators, ‘Innovative SMEs collaborating with others’ and ‘Public-private co-publications per million inhabitants’, where the Basque Country achieved scores of 18.12 and 341.77 compared to 11.68 and 138.50 for the EU-27.

Lastly, in the ‘Environmental sustainability’ dimension, which assesses improvements to reduce the negative impact on the environment, the Basque Country also surpassed the EU-27 with a score of 0.78 compared to the latter’s 0.60. This score would place the Basque Country joint first in the EU-27 ranking, along with Denmark. This high placing is thanks to the ‘Resource productivity’ indicator, which placed the Basque Country above the EU-27 with a score of 3.13 compared to 2.30, and ‘Air emissions by fine particulates PM2.5 in industry’ (the only indicator where a lower score is better), where the Basque Country scored 0.06 compared to the EU average of 0.07.

The four remaining dimensions were ‘Innovators’, which measures the proportion of SMEs that have introduced innovations into the market or within their organisations; ‘Intellectual assets’, which captures the different forms of intellectual property rights generated as returns on innovation processes; ‘Employment impacts’, which records the economic success of innovation on employment; and ‘Sales impacts’, which evaluates the economic success in sales as a result of innovation activities. For all of these indicators, the European Union’s scores surpassed those of the Basque Country.

European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) 2023

European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) 2023.Basque Country

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel.: 945 01 75 62