Switzerland still Europe’s innovation leader

Switzerland still reigns supreme in terms of innovation, out-performing the best European Union countries in the EU’s 2011 Innovation Scoreboard (IUS).

Switzerland is a long way ahead even of top-ranking EU members Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Finland.

At a presentation in Brussels on Tuesday, the specialists who carried out the survey pointed out that EU members had a long road ahead before catching up with the Swiss, the United States, South Korea or Japan.

Antonio Tajani, European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, said the results of the scorecard were “a clear warning that more efforts to boost innovation are needed. If we want to close the gap with our main economic partners and to overcome the current crisis, innovation deserves all our attention.”

The Federal Professional Education and Technology Office said in a statement that Switzerland stood out in particular because of the number of patent applications and sales of new products. It added that economic activities requiring higher knowledge and exports of high and medium technology boosted innovation.

The IUS is based on 25 innovation indicators and trend analyses for the EU member states, as well as for Croatia, Iceland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey. It also includes comparisons with ten global competitors based on a more reduced set of indicators.