According to Eustat data, the A.C of the Basque Country reached a score of 0.37 in the 2007 European Innovation Scoreboard, placing the A.C at 13th amongst EU-27 countries. If analysed by province, Álava had the highest score with 0.42 points, followed by Gipuzkoa with 0.38 and Bizkaia with 0.33.

Over the past two years it can be observed that the European-27 average has remained at 0.45 (out of a maximum of one). The A.C of the Basque Country has gone up by two hundredths (0.35 in 2006 to 0.37 in 2007) and each province has come closer to the European-27 average: Álava rose four hundredths (from 0.38 to 0.42), Bizkaia went up two hundredths (from 0.31 to 0.33) and Gipuzkoa also went up two hundredths (from 0.36 to 0.38).

Graph 1. European Innovation Scoreboard 2007 (SII), by Province, A.C of the Basque Country and the EU-27

Source: Eustat, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology y CE

The European Innovation Scoreboard sets out to measure innovation capacity and the development of innovation activities in a country’s economy. It is classified into five dimensions: three estimate elements that induce innovation, or input and two evaluate results, or output.

Table 1. European Innovation Scoreboard and dimensions, by Province and EU-27. 2006-2007

Source: Eustat, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology y CE

In relation to the European average, the A.C of the Basque Country stands out in some of the indicators included in the Drivers of Innovation group (i.e., youth between 20-29 years of age who graduated in sciences or engineering, and the population between 25 and 64 years of age with higher education) reaching a total of 0.70 points in that dimension whereas the European average is at 0.47. In all other dimensions the A.C's score is below the European average.

If different dimensions of the Scoreboard are compared by province, they all show notable differences except in the input indicator Driver of Innovation which is consistently close to 0.70.

For the Knowledge Creation indicator, Bizkaia stands out with public funding of R+D (0.34% of GDP) and Gipuzkoa with private funding of R+D (1.47% of GDP).

In the area of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Álava takes the lead for innovative SMEs (9.8%) and in expenditures dedicated to innovative business (2.3% of business volume).

Worth mentioning in the area of Applications are the percentages of: Álava (2.1% for product that is new to market and 3.0% for product that is new to the company but not to the market); Bizkaia for employment in the high tech service sector (3.9% of employment) and Gipuzkoa for high tech exports (6.0% of total exports).

Lastly, Álava stands out amongst the Intellectual Property indicators for the number of new patents, new trademarks and new registered EU designs per one million people.

Methodology note: The European Innovation Scoreboard is calculated with data from the 27 EU member countries and data from Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The objective is to classify the 27 EU member countries plus 10 others (Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Japan, United States, Canada, etc.) by measuring the innovation capacity and the development of innovation activities in each country’s economy.

There are 25 indicators are used, each for the same year, with the ultimate goal of creating a synthetic index where the maximum value is one.

European Innovation Scoreboard 2007

www.proinno-europe.eu/admin/uploaded_documents/European_Innovation_Scoreboard_2007.pdf