The Basque Country stands out on the innovation map

The Basque Country is the only autonomous community in Spain classified as a region of high innovation (Strong Innovator) in the recent Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS) published on July 14 by the European Commission, which was echoed by Innobasque. In the RIS or Regional Innovation Table, which measures innovation performance in 220 territorial units of the EU28+Norway, the Basque Country is one of the 4 regions recognized as innovation hubs (regional innovation hubs) in the group of innovation countries moderate, along with Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Piedmont, in Italy, and Bratislava, in Slovakia.

The strengths of the Basque Country, in relation to the EU28, are the achievement of higher education, innovative SMEs collaborating with other SMEs, and employment in knowledge-intensive industries. The Basque Country’s strengths compared to regions at the same level of performance are, in addition to achieving higher education and employment in knowledge-intensive activities, exports of goods with a high and medium technological level. On the other hand, the weaknesses detected are spending on non-R&D innovation, public spending on R&D, and the number of SMEs with marketing or organizational innovations.

The 36 leading innovation regions, excellence, is concentrated in just seven states: Germany, France, Great Britain, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden.