Press Release 24/04/2013
The Basque Country remained close to the group of countries with high innovation, but below the EU-27 average
Human Resources, Research Systems, Firm Investments and Linkages & Entrepreneurship were the three fundamental dimensions of Basque innovation
The Innovation Union Scoreboard-IUS 2013 stood at 0.48 for the Basque Country, according to data prepared by Eustat, meaning that it appeared below the EU-27 average, which had a value of 0.54, but one-hundredth nearer with regards to the previous scoring carried out.
The IUS 2013 Innovation Union Scoreboard attempts to measure the level at which the economies of the member countries have the capacity to develop innovation activities. The EU-27 countries can be grouped into four categories, according to the rating received. In the first group, innovation leader countries, were Sweden (0.75), Germany (0.72), Denmark (0.72), and Finland (0.68), although the European country that was at the vanguard of innovation in Europe was Switzerland (0.84), which does not belong to the European Union.
In the second group, innovation followers, were the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Austria, Ireland, France, Slovenia, Cyprus and Estonia with ratings of between 0.65 and 0.50.
Following these, the third group, countries with moderate innovation, included Italy, Spain and Portugal, amongst others, with ratings between 0.44 and 0.28. Lastly, in the fourth group, countries with modest innovation, were Poland, Latvia, Romania and Bulgaria, obtaining between 0.27 and 0.19 points.
The IUS 2013 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 Firm Investments, obtaining similar figures in another two dimensions, Innovation Systems and Linkages & Entrepreneurship. In the remaining four dimensions, the rating obtained for the Autonomous Region was clearly below that achieved in the European Union.
In Human Resources, a dimension that measures the availability of highly qualified and trained individuals as key information for innovation in the Basque Country, two indicators stood out: the percentage of the "Population aged 30-34 with tertiary education", which stood at 42.6%, with the community average standing at 34.6%, and the percentage of "Young people aged 20-24 with at least upper secondary education", with 82.6% for the Autonomous Region and 79.5% for the EU-27. On the other hand, the score for “New doctorate graduates aged 25-34” stood at 1.19 per thousand in the Basque Country, whereas in the EU-27 it stood at 1.50 per thousand.
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 1.57% for the Basque Country and 1.27% for the European average. On the other hand, the “Non-R&D innovation expenditure” as a percentage of turnover stood at 0.46% in the Basque Country whilst in the EU-27 it stood at 0.56%.
As regards the level of openness, excellence and attractiveness of Research Systems, a dimension that measures international competitiveness of the scientific framework, the number of "International scientific co-publications per million inhabitants" stood out: 456 in the Basque Country compared to 300 in Europe. However, there were lower figures for the percentages of "Scientific Publications most cited internationally" (excellent), 10.5% for the Basque Country and 10.9% for the EU-27, and Non-EU doctorate students amongst the total of doctorate students in the country", 17.1% in the Basque Country and 20.0% in the EU-27.
Regarding Linkages & Entrepreneurship , which takes into account the entrepreneurial efforts and collaboration in innovation with other companies and institutions, the indicator that collects the percentage of "SMEs with internal innovation" was higher in the Basque Country (33.7%) than in the EU-27 (31.8%), whilst the percentage of "Innovating SMEs that collaborate in innovation" was 9.5% in the Autonomous Region compared to 11.7% in the European Union.
In the remaining dimensions, although the rating is below the European average, various simple indicators can be highlighted where the Basque Country has obtained better results than the European Union: "Community trademarks" and "Exports of medium and high technology products". The following indicators had analogous results: "SMEs with product or process innovations", "Employment in knowledge-intensive activities" and "Sales of new-to-market and new-to-firm innovations".
On the less positive side, there were also a series of indicators that still lagged behind the figures seen in the European Union.
In the Finance & Support dimension, in both “R&D expenditure in the public sector” and “Availability of venture capital”, in terms of percentage over GDP, the values obtained were below the European average. In the Intellectual Assets dimension, it can be seen how the “PCT Patent applications” and “EU Designs” indicators were also below average. The same occurred in Innovators with the percentage of "SMEs with marketing or organisational innovations" and in Economic effects with "Knowledge-intensive services exports" and "Licence and patent revenues from abroad".
Methodological note: As of this year, the Innovation Union Scoreboard incorporates the name of the year in which it is published, IUS 2013. Furthermore, with regards to the edition of the previous year, the definition of 3 of the 25 indicators has been modified.
Innovation Union Scoreboard, IUS 2013
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/facts-figures-analysis/innovation-scoreboard/
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 Innovation Union Scoreboard - IUS