On 29 September, WIPO launched the 15th edition of the annual Global Innovation Index (GII). The 2022 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) tracks the most recent global innovation trends against the background of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, slowing productivity growth and other evolving challenges. The Global Innovation Index covers 132 countries and is based on 81 indicators.

According to the 2022 edition of the GII, Switzerland comes out as the best performer for the 12th year in a row, followed by the United States and Sweden. Other EU Member States in the top 10 are Netherlands (rank 5), Germany (rank 8) Finland (9) Denmark (10). The lowest ranked EU Member States are Romania (rank 49), Slovakia (rank 46), and Greece (44). The lowest ranked country overall is Guinea.

Some important shifts occurred on this year’s edition with China approaching the top 10, at rank 11 and overtaking France; and Türkiye and India entering the top 40 for the first time. Furthermore, some middle-income economies are changing the innovation landscape. Beyond China and India, Viet Nam (48th), the Islamic Republic of Iran (53rd) and the Philippines (59th) are the middle-income economies with the fastest innovation catch-up to-date. Indonesia (75th) shows promising innovation potential.

An interesting finding of the 2022 report is that innovation investments thrived at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and boomed in 2021, but their continued resilience is uncertain for 2022, as the world meets new challenges. For example, Investments in global R&D in 2020 grew at a rate of 3.3 percent, not falling, and government budget allocations for the top R&D spending economies showed strong growth in 2020, as governments vigorously sought to mitigate the economic effects of the crisis on the future of innovation. For 2021 R&D budgets, the picture is more varied, with government spending having continued to grow in the Republic of Korea and Germany, but being cut by Japan and the United States. In turn, top corporate R&D spenders increased their R&D expenditure by more than 11 percent in 2020, and by almost 10 percent to over USD 900 billion in 2021. This increase was primarily driven by four industries: ICT hardware and electrical equipment; Software and ICT services; Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology; and, Construction and industrial metals.

Finally, the report identifies the top 100 S&T regional clusters with regard to patenting and publishing performance, with new clusters emerging. According to this analysis, Tokyo–Yokohama (Japan) remains the world's leading cluster, reflecting its strong patenting performance, followed by Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou, Beijing, Seoul and San Jose-San Francisco. Paris (rank 10) is the leader in the EU, followed by Cologne (rank 23) and Munich (rank 24). In terms of S&T intensity, Eindhoven comes in second and only behind Cambridge (UK).  For the first time, China has as many top 100 S&T clusters as the United States (both with 21), while the EU takes the lead with 24 clusters. In the EU, Germany is the country with the highest number of clusters (10).

This year’s special theme discusses whether stagnation is here to stay, or whether we are about to enter a new era, where innovation waves reinvigorate economic growth and productivity globally.

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