Bulgaria and Romania - at the Bottom of the Pile in Europe in Terms of Innovation Performance

Romania and Bulgaria are at the bottom of the EU ranking in terms of innovation performance in 2016. This is shown by the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) 2017, according to bTV.

Alongside Bulgaria, Romania falls in the Modest Innovator category, the lowest ranking one in the scoreboard and grouping countries that show a performance level below 50% of the EU average.

The EIS measurement framework, revised for this year's edition, takes into account 27 different indicators that look at the main drivers of innovation performance external to the firm, public and private investment in research and innovation, innovation efforts at the level of the firm, and the impact of firms' innovation activities.

The relative strengths of the country's innovation system are in the innovation-friendly environment, and the human resources, while the relative weaknesses are in the innovation activities, and in the public and private investment in research and innovation.

The R&D expenditure in the public sector stood in 2016 at 21.8% relative to the EU 2010 average, while venture capital expenditures were 13.3% of the EU 2010 average. This brought the Finance and Support category of indicators in 2016 to 18.1% relative to the EU 2010 average.

At the same time, the R&D expenditure in the business sector was 15.9% of the EU average, and non R&D innovation expenditures of companies were 21.3% of the EU 2010 average. The private co-funding of public R&D expenditures dropped by over 36 pp from 2010 to 2016 to reach 61% relative to the EU 2010 average.

In the Innovation-friendly environment category, Romania scores better in the Broadband Penetration indicator, at 144.4% relative to the EU average, a 22 pp increase on the 2010 score....

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