The Netherlands climbs on the Innovation Union Scoreboard
The results of the 2011 Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) have been published, with the Netherlands climbing one spot to reach seventh place on the list. In doing so, it has surpassed Austria in the rankings of Europe’s most innovative countries.
Innovation Union Scoreboard
The IUS report includes innovation indicators and trend analyses for the European Union’s 27 member states, as well as for Croatia, Iceland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey. It also includes comparisons based on a reduced set of indicators between the 27 EU nations and 10 other global competitors. The final scorecard is derived from 25 different innovation indicators, all falling into three categories: enablers, firm activities and outputs.
Innovating in Europe
Nordic countries such as Sweden and Denmark top the 2011 list and are titled "Innovation leaders". The next grouping of countries that score above average is named "Innovation followers", with the Netherlands, France and Luxembourg graded in this group. Those countries that score slightly below average are named "Moderate innovators", examples being Czech Republic, Malta and Italy. And the least innovative countries in the EU are titled "Modest innovators", including examples such as Bulgaria and Romania.
Amsterdam Area: a research hub
The Netherlands scored particularly well for its available research systems. No other country surpassed the Dutch in this dimension. Within the Netherlands, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area plays an important role as a research hub. The area hosts the highest concentration of life sciences research in the Netherlands, boasting more than 20,000 employees and promoting a strong focus on biomedical and human health.
It is expected that the combination of expertise in different areas will attract additional talented researchers and specialists, thereby increasing the critical mass of knowledge workers in the medical sector.
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