Internationalisation
The Netherlands strengthens its position as European innovation leader
The Netherlands has further strengthened its position as European innovation leader. The European Innovation Scoreboard shows that, by comparison with last year, the Netherlands scores higher on the 27 indicators for innovative strength. Furthermore, the Netherlands has risen from fifth to fourth place on the scoreboard and thereby has passed Germany. Alongside the Netherlands and Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom were also indicated as innovation leaders. This title was first obtained by the Netherlands in 2016.
Minister Kamp of Economic Affairs: “Through intensive collaboration between companies, knowledge institutions and governments, the innovation strength and, therefore, the competiveness of the Netherlands has further increased in recent years. To maintain this position as European innovation leader in the future, action is needed. Our public investments in innovation are above the European average, however the independent investments of Dutch companies are below average. It is now important that the correct entrepreneurs further invest in innovation.”
Dutch innovation strength increases in relation to the EU-average
For the first time the European Innovation Scoreboard a comparison between the innovation performances over a longer period. In six years the Dutch innovation strength is increased with 10,4 percent in relation to the European Union. In 2010 the outcome was 19,1% above average, our innovation strength has since further increased and now stands at 19,5%.
The European Innovation Scoreboard assesses countries on 27 indicators such as public private partnerships, investments, amount and impact of SME innovations, digitalization, quality of studies and the level of employment in innovative companies and knowledge institutes. The innovation leaders, including the Netherlands, are countries score at least twenty percent above the European average. Strengthening the Netherlands from strong innovator to innovation leader, was specified as an ambition of the cabinet and has already been realized last year. In 2016 the reputable European Innovation Scoreboard of the European Commission stated that the Netherlands achieved the result as innovation leader for the first time.
SME innovates a lot and successfully, quality research is high
The Netherlands scores well on the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) on the quality of the scientific publications, the share of the SMEs in innovation and the cooperation between companies to stimulate this. The expenditures on research & development from the public sector are far above the EU-average and furthermore has increased with ten percent between 2010 and 2016. According to the EIS the investments in innovation in the Netherlands by companies themselves continue to fare worse in relation to Europe. In 2016 this score was 20,3& below the European average.
The EIS compares each year the research- and innovation performances of the 28 Member States of the European Union. The report furthermore analyses the relative strengths and weaknesses of the research- and innovation systems. In this way the scoreboard provides the Member States insight where they can improve their innovation performances. The EIS applies four categories: innovation leader, strong innovators, moderate innovators and modest innovators.
Read the complete European Innovation Scoreboard 2017 on the website of the European Commission.