Portugal joins group of "highly innovative" EU countries

The 2020 edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS 2020) places Portugal in 12th place on the European Commission's annual list, which aims to measure the performance of EU member states in terms of innovation. The updated ranking, released on June 23, moves Portugal from the "moderately innovative" group to the "strongly innovative" group, where it now ranks alongside Belgium, Germany, Austria, Ireland, France and Estonia.

Portugal moved up 6 places compared to the list published in 2016, when it was in 18th place. Portugal was also the country that rose the most in the innovation indicator between 2015 and 2019. These results are the result of an increase in the innovation capacity of companies, R&D entities and most of the players in the National Innovation System.

Contributing to this rise in the ranking is the very positive national performance in the basic conditions for innovation: the internationalization of the research system, more people with access to higher education and broadband penetration, indicators in which Portugal is above the EU average.

The conclusions of the diagnosis of the innovation system developed by EIS 2020 are taken into account in the definition of public policies in Portugal: the initiatives included in the National Reform Program, as well as in the Strategy for Technological and Business Innovation 2018-2030 and the "Science Law", focus on better coordination between companies and entities in the scientific and technological system. This includes the INTERFACE Program, which aims to promote Interface Centers (CIT), cluster dynamics, the creation of Collaborative Laboratories (CoLAB) or the stimulation of collaboration between small and medium-sized Portuguese companies and multinationals present in Portugal.

See the National Research Agency (ANI) website for more information on the European Innovation Scoreboard report.