The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) is an annual comparative assessment of the research and innovation performance of each EU Member State, neighbouring European countries and selected third countries (global competitors). It assists stakeholders in determining where to focus their efforts in order to improve innovation performance while taking the country’s socioeconomic environment into account.
The European Union’s yearly innovation performance increased by 0.6% points between 2023 and 2024, similarly to between 2022 and 2023. The EIS measures innovation through assessing framework conditions, investments, innovation activities, and the impacts of innovation activities on employment, sales, exports, and environmental sustainability.
In terms of the European Innovation Scoreboard 2024, Ireland was deemed a ’Strong Innovator’ with performance at 113.2% of the EU average in 2024. There are eight Strong Innovators which means that their performance lies between 100% and 125% of the EU average in 2024. However, Ireland’s performance is above the average of the Strong Innovators, but its performance is increasing less than the EU.
In terms of dimension measurements, Ireland was one of the best performing Member States for ‘Employment Impacts’ which is based on two indicators—employment in knowledge-intensive industries and employment in innovative enterprises—and assesses the effect of innovation activities on employment. Furthermore, Ireland was the top-performing Member State for the ‘Sales Impacts’ dimension.
Three variables are included in the Sales Impacts dimension, which assesses the financial impact of innovation: exports of high-tech and medium-sized goods, exports of knowledge-intensive services, and sales that stem from innovative products.
Ireland’s strong increases since 2023 were innovative SMEs collaborating with others, employment in innovative enterprises, and innovation expenditures per person employed. Non-R&D innovation expenditures, SMEs introducing business process innovations, and enterprises providing ICT training were listed as Ireland’s strong decreases since 2023.
Overall, Ireland’s innovation performance was mostly consistent with only a few small fluctuations between 2017 and 2023. However, between 2023 and 2024, a positive trend developed which resulted in a 2.3 per cent improvement in comparison to 2017.
