On 15 July, the European Commission published the 2025 edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard and Regional Scoreboard, aptly also celebrating its 25th anniversary. The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) is a tool meant to monitor and benchmark Europe’s innovation performance against a number of global competitors. It aims at providing evidence for policy-making and supporting other complementary tools, including the New European Innovation Agenda. The Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS) captures innovation performance of regions across Europe. 
 
The EIS categorises member states’ performance into four groups: innovation leaders, strong innovators, moderate innovators and emerging innovators.  

• Among these categories, Sweden and Ireland stand out as leaders; Sweden, overall highest and with an increase of 2%, and Ireland, as the lead of the strong innovators category with an increase of 4.1% in the last year.  
• Croatia made a significant increase as well, moving from an emerging to moderate innovator.  
• The extended EIS reports Switzerland as the most innovative European country. 

Since 2018, the EIS reports that innovation performance has steadily increased in Europe annually by 12.6%, a slight improvement from previous years’ performance of 12.5% (see ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, July 2021).  

In 2025, thirteen member states increased their scores, while fourteen member states decreased their scores compared to last year. The most notable increases were in Malta and Luxembourg, with Czechia and Cyprus experiencing the sharpest decreases. In terms of global competitors, the EIS reports that South Korea, Canada, China, the U.S. and Australia have outperformed the EU.  
 
The Regional Innovation Scoreboard reports growing disparities between northern and southern Europe. 
 
It is yet to be seen how the European Commission’s proposal for the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) (see ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, July 2025), including the reform of national and regional development and cohesion funding, on the one hand, and the creation of the European Competitiveness Fund along with the anticipated budget increase for Horizon Europe (see ACA Newsletter  – Education Europe, July 2025), on the other, will affect Europe’s innovation and research performance in the coming years.