The European Commission published the 2024 edition of the Science, Research and Innovation (R&I) Performance Report (SRIP). Over the past two decades, there has been an increase in EU investments in R&I which has contributed to the EU’s competitiveness in green tech especially, and to the overall quality of EU research.
Some of the key findings are:
- The EU maintains a leading position in global patent fillings related to renewables (29%) and energy efficiency (24%)
- The EU is only surpassed by China in terms of scientific output and represents 18% of the global scientific production. As regards the global share in top 10% most-cited publications, the EU is performing similarly to the US but behing China. In 2021 the EU only ranked fifth in terms of R&I intensity (2.3%), standing below the US (3.5%), Japan (3.3%), South Korea (4.9%) and China (2.4%), which surpassed the EU level for R&I intensity for the first time in 2020.
- Compared to the US and China, the EU is less specialised in key productivity-enhancing technologies, particularly in the fields of artificial intelligence, internet of things, blockchain technologies and quantum computers.
- The venture capital market in the EU is limited compared to other regions of the world, hindering private investments in innovative companies.