Switzerland: European innovation champion
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Switzerland is the European champion of innovative performance, according to the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS).
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The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) in 2008 ranked Switzerland 1st followed by Sweden and Finland
respectively. Switzerland has, therefore, improved its consistently excellent status as a European
innovation center (the EIS-2007 ranked Switzerland 2nd).
Business research and development (R&D) expenditures, intellectual property, and technological innovation
are among the best categories of Switzerland's innovative performance.
Business R&D expenditures (in GDP percentage) are within the highest in Europe (3rd), and Switzerland is
number 1 within Europe for public-private scientific cooperation, measured by the number of public-private
co-publications. Also, Swiss performance in patent applications (per million population) filed with the
European Patent Office ranks 3rd. In addition, Switzerland leads with the number of small and medium
companies introducing technological market innovations.
Switzerland's outstanding innovative performance is also based on the country's excellent results in the
human resources category (3rd), e.g. people with tertiary education, those involved in life-long learning,
or the number of doctorates awarded.
The EIS, published by the EU commission, represents a comparative analysis of innovative performance
within Europe, based on 29 indicators in such categories as «Human Resources», «Finance and Support»,
and «Firm Investment».
European Innovation Scoreboard 2008
Top 10 Rankings
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Country |
Rank |
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Switzerland |
1 |
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Sweden |
2 |
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Finland |
3 |
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Germany |
4 |
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Denmark |
5 |
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UK |
6 |
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Austria |
7 |
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Ireland |
8 |
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Luxembourg |
9 |
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Belgium |
10 |
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Text – Greater
Zurich Area
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