Austria stagnates in EU innovation ranking, remains eighth

Austria has maintained its eighth-place position in the European Union's European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), continuing to be categorized as a "Strong Innovator." However, the country's overall innovation performance experienced a slight decline in its total score across 32 indicators compared to 2025, placing it just below the EU average.

While Austria's innovation output remains clearly above the EU average, it lags behind the top-tier "Innovation Leaders" such as Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Following these leaders are Finland, Belgium, Ireland, and Luxembourg. Germany, France, and Estonia are ranked closely behind Austria in the scoreboard released on Thursday.

Globally, Switzerland leads Europe in innovation, with South Korea, China, Canada, and the United States also scoring above the EU average. The report notes that while EU countries are catching up to Canada and the U.S., they are falling behind China, South Korea, and Australia.

Austria's performance this year stands at 113 percent of the European average. Although its performance has increased by 8.9 percentage points since 2019, the period between 2025 and 2026 shows a slight decrease of 2.3 percentage points. This marks a stagnation or slight decline after a period of growth, with Austria slipping from sixth to eighth place last year and now falling just below the average within the "Strong Innovators" group.

The report suggests that Austria is struggling to maintain its competitive edge despite significant investments in research and innovation. Key strengths for Austria include international networking, the attractiveness of its research system, intellectual potential, and public funding for research, technology, and innovation. The country also performs well in patent and trademark applications and in collaboration between academia and industry.