vladimir-sazonov-shutterstock-com-wipo-2--1
21 September 2021PatentsMuireann Bolger

UK keeps top 5 ranking in WIPO innovation index

The UK has maintained its top five place ranking in the Global Innovation Index (GII), the annual report published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Now in its 14th edition, Switzerland, Sweden, US, and the UK have continued to top the index, with all four ranking in the top five in the past three years. The Republic of Korea joins the GII’s top five for the first time, while four other Asian economies featured in the top 15: Singapore (8), China (12), Japan (13) and Hong Kong, China (14).

Quality in the UK

The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) welcomed the report’s ranking of the UK, describing it as testament to the consistent quality of the country’s strengths in research, market sophistication, innovation outputs and infrastructure.

Tim Moss, CEO of the IPO, said: “I am delighted that the UK is once again ranked so highly within the widely-respected GII.

“A strong IP environment has a huge part to play in driving economic recovery, providing the confidence for enterprising businesses to invest their time, energy and resources in doing something new. Today’s report demonstrates that the UK has one the best IP environments in the world. We’re proud of our work to help keep it this way and ensure it gets even better”.

The UK performed particularly well in areas including information computer technology, government online service and creative outputs.

The 2021 edition of the GII presents the latest global innovation ranking of 132 economies, relying on 81 different indicators. While tracking the most recent global innovation trends, this edition also focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on innovation.

The report showed that scientific output, expenditures in research and development (R&D), IP filings and venture capital (VC) deals continued to grow in 2020, building on strong pre-crisis performance. Notably, R&D expenditures showed greater resilience during the pandemic-linked economic downturn than in previous slumps.

The top global corporate R&D spenders increased their R&D expenditures by around 10% in 2020, with 60% of these R&D-intensive firms reporting an increase.

The number of VC deals grew by 5.8% in 2020, exceeding the average growth rate of the past 10 years. Strong growth in the Asia Pacific region more than compensated for declines in North America and Europe. Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean also registered double-digit increases.

Impact of COVID-19

However, the report confirmed that the  impact of the COVID-19 crisis has been highly uneven across industries, according to a new GII feature, the Global Innovation Tracker.

Firms with outputs including software, internet and communications technologies, hardware and electrical equipment industry and pharmaceuticals and biotechnology amplified their investments in innovation and increased their R&D efforts.

In contrast, firms in sectors heavily hit by the pandemic’s containment measures and whose business models rely on in-person activities such as transport and travel cut back their outlays, the tracker showed.

Commenting on the rankings, WIPO director general, Daren Tang, said: "This year’s Global Innovation Index shows us that in spite of the massive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on lives and livelihoods, many sectors have shown remarkable resilience, especially those that have embraced digitalisation, technology and innovation",

He added: “As the world looks to rebuild from the pandemic, we know that innovation is integral to overcoming the common challenges that we face and to constructing a better future. The Global Innovation Index is a unique tool to guide policy-makers and businesses in charting plans to ensure that we emerge stronger from the pandemic.”

An uneven landscape

The report also confirmed that the geography of global innovation is changing unevenly.

While North America and Europe continue to lead the global innovation landscape, the innovation performance of South East Asia, East Asia, and Oceania has been the most dynamic in the past decade.

China is still the only middle-income economy that made it to the top 30. Bulgaria (35), Malaysia (36), Turkey (41), Thailand (43), Viet Nam (44), the Russian Federation (45), India (46), Ukraine (49), and Montenegro (50) featured in the GII’s top 50.

However, only Turkey, Vietnam, India and the Philippines, are systematically catching up, according to WIPO, which stated that these larger economies have the potential to change the global innovation landscape for good.

“The GII shows that although emerging economies often find it challenging to steadily improve their innovation systems, a few middle-income economies have managed to catch up in innovation with their more developed peers", said the professor of management at Cornell University, Soumitra Dutta.

“These emerging economies, among other things, have been able to successfully complement their domestic innovation with international technology transfer, develop technologically dynamic services that can be traded internationally, and ultimately have shaped more balanced innovation systems”.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk


More on this story

Copyright
15 June 2017   Switzerland has retained its lead for the seventh consecutive year in the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) innovation index.
Copyright
1 November 2021   The UK has become the first member state to sponsor the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Creators initiative.