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12 years of experience in obtaining European subsidies
Monitoring, Training and Consultancy for private, public and non-profit organisations

The largest gap for the EU27 remains in terms of private sector innovation. The EU still maintains a clear lead over the emerging economies of China, Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa. However, China is improving its innovation performance and is catching up progressively. Within the EU, Sweden confirms its position at the top of the overall ranking, followed closely by Denmark, Germany and Finland (see complete ranking below). Firms' innovation activities stand out as an important factor to achieve top positions at EU and international level.

The 2011 Innovation Union Scoreboard places Member States into the following four country groups: 

- Innovation leaders: Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Finland. 

- Innovation followers: Belgium, the UK, Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Ireland, France, Slovenia, Cyprus and Estonia with a performance close to that of the EU27 average. 

- Moderate innovators: Italy, Portugal, Czech Republic, Spain, Hungary, Greece, Malta Slovakia and Poland perform below that of the EU27 average. 

- Modest innovators: Romania, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Latvia are well below that of the EU27 average.

Countries at the top of the ranking for the composite innovation indicator share a number of strengths in their national research and innovation systems with a key role of business activity and public-private collaboration. While there is not one single way to reach top innovation performance, it is clear that all innovation leaders, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, perform very well in R&D expenditures, including of firms. Most of the innovation leaders also perform very well in other innovation indicators related to firm activities. The top EU innovation performer Sweden dominates in three out of 8 innovation dimensions: Human resources, Finance and support, and Firm investments; while Germany and Denmark perform best in two innovation dimensions each (linkages & entrepreneurship and intellectual assets vs innovators and economic effects). European top innovators also score highly in the commercialisation of their technological knowledge. 

As last year, the largest gap appears in the "Firm activities" category where the EU27 lags behind in terms of business R&D expenditures, public-private co-publications, and, with the US, in terms of excellent and attractive research systems. Better framework conditions for innovation will not suffice if the EU cannot attract a much higher share of the top researchers and best young scientific talents worldwide. 

The 2011 Innovation Union Scoreboard draws currently on 24 indicators that are grouped into three main categories and 8 dimensions: 

- "Enablers", i.e. the basic building blocks which allow innovation to take place (Human resources, open, excellent and attractive research systems, and finance and support); 

- "Firm activities", which capture innovation efforts in European firms (firm investments, linkages & entrepreneurship, and intellectual assets); and 

- "Outputs" which show how this translates into benefits for the economy as a whole (innovators and economic effects, including employment).

• CIP - COMPETITIVENESS AND INNOVATION FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME :

  Grants for innovation activities (including eco-innovation) in enterprises, take-up of ...

• ENPI - Support for partnership, reforms and inclusive growth (SPRING) :

  The SPRING programme is a multicountry programme with a global approach that provides t...

• PREPARATORY ACTION - EUROPEAN PARTNERSHIPS ON SPORT :

  This new preparatory action aims at testing the feasibility of financing actions throug...

• EUROPEAN PROGRESS MICROFINANCE FACILITY  :

  Funds to increase the availability of microcredit (loans below € 25 000) for setting up...

• BEST – Preparatory action :

  Voluntary scheme for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Territories of European Ove...

> More European grants

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