The UN agency WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organisation) works in cooperation with the French business school INSEAD and Cornell University to produce the annual Global Innovation Index (GII). This year’s rankings see Switzerland, Sweden and the USA unchanged as leaders, while China features in the top 10 for the first time and Norway has made it into the top 20.
Austria has maintained its position amongst the top twenty innovative countries for years, and is currently ranked at 19 on a roster of 139 economies. Although slight shortcomings in the availability of risk capital were noted, the country scored highly in respect of research & development, the patent sector and infrastructure – so Austria continues to shine as a strong and stable innovation hub.
Innovation is an important driver of economic development and enhanced resilience, growth and competitiveness in an economy, and these are the basic parameters on which the GII has been calculated annually since 2007. The innovations potential of some 140 countries are investigated and assessed against eighty indices, and the Global Innovation Index has become a benchmark for innovation and a means for formulating objectives and delivering action.
The complete index rankings are available from the Global Innovation Index website and can be filtered by country.
