Sweden and Finland Top the 2004 European Innovation Scoreboard

The Cordis News Sevice is reporting that the 2004 European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) confirms Sweden and Finland as the EU's innovative leaders, with Estonia and Slovenia leading the ten new Member States.

This year's EIS indicates that the gap between the EU and the US and Japan remains constant. The gap between the EU and the US can largely be explained by three indicators, according to the EIS: patents; percentage of the working population with tertiary education; and research expenditure.

The scoreboard was established by the European Commission as part of the Lisbon Strategy to compare the innovation performance of the EU Member States. It looks at four aspects of non-technical innovation: non-technical change; implementation of changed organisational structures; implementation of advanced management techniques; and implementation of significant changes to aesthetic appearance. Luxembourg performs best in three out of four categories, while Germany comes second in all four.