The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) for 2006 is already available. This edition looks at developments in the 27 EU member states, Croatia, Turkey, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, the US and Japan. The 2006 EIS follows the structure of the previous Scoreboard and identifies the same innovation leaders: the Nordic countries, Switzerland, and Japan. On the other extreme, the “trailing countries” are Estonia, Spain, Italy, Malta, Hungary, Croatia and Slovakia. In the middle of the spectrum are the “followers” and the “catching-up countries”. While many of the analyses are consistent with the 2005 results, there are some noticeable changes:

•  enhanced convergence in innovation performance within the EU: an increased number of the new member states are steadily catching up with the EU average; simultaneously, both country groups of “innovation leaders” and “followers” are facing a relative decline in their innovation lead;
• decreased innovation gap between the EU, on the one side, and the US and Japan, on the other, but the innovation leadership remains with the two latter.

At the same time, the 2006 EIS recognises that all EU members “excel in one or another dimension of innovation, but only a few of them (the innovation leaders) achieve an overall performance that grants world innovation leadership”. The 2006 European Innovation Scoreboard and its accompanying Strengths and Weaknesses Report, prepared by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, are available at the website PRO INNO Europe, a new initiative of Directorate General Enterprise and Industry to provide information on innovation policy in Europe. To compare latest data with the 2005 edition of the Scoreboard, see also ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, January 2006. European Commission – press release
European Commission – summary of trends in innovation performance
European Innovation Scoreboard 2006