Portugal joins group of “highly innovative” EU countries

The 2020 edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS 2020) ranks Portugal 12th in this annual list compiled by the European Commission, which aims to measure the performance of European Union member states in terms of innovation. The update to this ranking, released on June 23, moves Portugal from the "moderately innovative" group to the "highly innovative" group, now appearing in this category alongside Belgium, Germany, Austria, Ireland, France, and Estonia.

Portugal rose six places compared to the list published in 2016, when it ranked 18th. Our country also saw the biggest rise in the innovation indicator between 2015 and 2019. These results are the fruit of increased innovation capacity among companies, R&D entities, and most actors in the National Innovation System.

Contributing to this rise in the ranking is the very positive national performance in terms of 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 in the "Science Law," prioritize better coordination between companies and entities in the scientific and technological system. In this regard, the INTERFACE Program stands out, which aims to promote Interface Centers (CIT), cluster dynamics, the creation of Collaborative Laboratories (CoLAB), and the stimulation of collaboration between Portuguese small and medium-sized enterprises and multinationals present in Portugal.

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