The Swiss voice in the world since 1935
Top stories
Stay in touch with Switzerland

Switzerland named most innovative country in Europe

dam
The Alpine solar plant on the wall of the Albigna dam in eastern Switzerland, run by the city of Zurich's electricity company © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Switzerland is the innovation leader in Europe – ahead of all 27 EU states – according to a report by the EU Commission.

The Alpine country scored best in all seven indicators used to compile the ranking. “Switzerland’s strengths are in attractive research systems, human resources and intellectual assets. The top-3 indicators include international scientific co-publications, foreign doctorate students, and lifelong learning,” said the European Innovation Scoreboard 2021External link, which was published on Monday.

“Most recently innovation performance has declined, mostly due to reduced performance for government support for business R&D, employment in knowledge-intensive activities, knowledge-intensive services exports, and environment-related technologies.”

The report pointed to continued convergence within the EU, with lower-performing countries growing faster than higher-performing ones, therefore closing the innovation gap among them. As a result, the difference between the EU and Switzerland in terms of innovative strength has narrowed.

Strengths and weaknesses

In addition to Switzerland, other “innovation leaders” are Sweden, followed by Finland, Denmark and Belgium. Iceland, Israel, Norway and the United Kingdom are described as “strong innovators”. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine are so-called emerging innovators.

According to the report, Stockholm (Sweden) is the most innovative region in Europe, followed by Etelä-Suomi (Finland) and Upper Bavaria (Germany). Hovedstaden (Denmark) ranks fourth and Zurich (Switzerland) fifth.

The European Innovation Scoreboard compares innovation performance in EU countries, other European countries and regional neighbours. It assesses the relative strengths and weaknesses of national innovation systems. The European Innovation Scoreboard was first published in 2001.

More

Popular Stories

News

Death of Esther Grether, owner of the Doetsch Grether Group

More

Swiss billionaire Esther Grether dies

This content was published on Esther Grether has died aged 89. Considered one of Switzerland’s leading entrepreneurs, the owner of the Basel-based Doetsch Grether Group was also a major shareholder in the Swatch Group and an art collector.

Read more: Swiss billionaire Esther Grether dies
Flag of the Swiss Wrestling Federation ceremoniously received in Mollis GL

More

Three-day Swiss wrestling festival begins

This content was published on The flag of the Swiss Wrestling Federation has been received at the start of the Swiss Wrestling and Alpine Festival in Mollis, canton Glarus.

Read more: Three-day Swiss wrestling festival begins

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR