EU innovation performance rises but gaps between Member States persist

The European Commission last week published the Innovation Scoreboard 2026, which assesses the innovation performance of EU Member States and selected neighbouring countries. According to the latest edition, the EU’s overall innovation performance has increased by 11.6 percentage points since 2019 and by 1.7 points between 2025 and 2026, although significant disparities between Member States remain. The publication comes as EU institutions discuss the next Framework Programme for research and innovation, known as FP10, the proposed European Innovation Act and measures intended to strengthen European competitiveness.

“The results show that Europe has continued to strengthen its innovation capacity despite a challenging economic and geopolitical environment,” said Camino Correia, Head of European Programmes at Zabala Innovation, which is marking its 40th anniversary in 2026 after four decades of supporting innovation across Europe.

Four decades supporting European innovation

Founded in Spain in 1986, Zabala Innovation has grown into an international consultancy with more than 600 professionals, including more than 70 PhD holders, working across 13 offices and serving more than 10,000 clients. Between 2021 and 2025, the company helped secure more than €6.9 billion in public funding for its clients, submitted more than 800 European proposals and achieved a 40% success rate in European programmes.

The consultancy supports companies, research organisations and public authorities throughout the innovation process, from identifying funding opportunities and building international consortia to managing projects and helping bring their results closer to the market. Through its Brussels office and wider European presence, it also follows EU research and innovation policy and helps organisations respond to changing priorities and funding requirements.

Correia said that every EU Member State recorded an improvement in its innovation performance between 2019 and 2026, according to the Scoreboard, but also that the findings highlighted the challenges that Europe still faces in converting research into commercial success. “Progress cannot be taken for granted”, she warned.

Sweden remains Europe’s innovation leader

Sweden continues to lead the European Innovation Scoreboard, followed by Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands. The highest-performing countries combine strong research systems, investment in research and development, highly skilled workforces and collaboration between scientific institutions and businesses.

The composition of the leading group remains broadly stable. The Scoreboard also records improvements in several other Member States, although differences between national innovation systems remain.

Research, skills and digitalisation support EU performance

The Scoreboard identifies human capital, scientific research, digitalisation, public support for research and innovation, and cooperation between research organisations and businesses as areas contributing to Europe’s innovation performance. Its findings point to the role of education and skills development in supporting innovation, as well as the importance of scientific capabilities and digital technologies in business transformation.

Public funding continues to support national research and innovation systems, while cooperation between companies and research organisations contributes to knowledge transfer and the development of new products and technologies.

Business investment and commercialisation remain uneven

The report also identifies continuing weaknesses in the European innovation system. Business investment in research and development varies considerably between Member States. The commercialisation of research results and the ability of innovative companies to expand also remain uneven across the EU.

Differences in industrial structures, access to investment and the development of national and regional innovation ecosystems contribute to the gap between countries. The Scoreboard highlights technology transfer, access to finance and the regulatory and economic conditions affecting start-ups and scale-ups as relevant factors in improving innovation performance.

The data show strong European performance in areas such as research, talent and digitalisation. In contrast, “they also indicate that translating scientific research into industrial applications, growing innovative companies and bringing technologies to market remain significant challenges”, Correia stressed. “Decisions on future funding programmes and innovation policies will determine how the EU addresses these differences during the next policy cycle”, she concluded.