Romania, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Latvia are among the modest innovators in the European Union, found a recent innovation performance report issued by the European Commission. Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Finland and the innovation leaders in EU27, according to the Innovation Union Scoreboard. However, countries like Bulgaria, Estonia, Romania, Portugal and Slovenia are the growth leaders with an average annual growth rate well above 5 percent.

Romania scored better in human resources, firm investments and economic effects, while weaknesses were noted in research systems, linkages and entrepreneurship, as well as intellectual assets and innovators. The report highlights high growth for community trademarks, community designs and license, as well as patent revenues from abroad. Growth performance in finance and support and Intellectual assets was found well above average.

Less than 20 percent of the age group 30 to 34 in Romania have completed tertiary education, below the a average 33.6 percent in EU 27, but this group has been increasing 'spectacularly' over the previous years. Small and medium enterprises in the country lack collaboration: less than one in 20 SMEs collaborate with each other, compared to one out of five in UK. SMEs don't display innovation in terms of introducing new products and services, with a share below 20 percent of total SMEs. The EU 27 average is 35 percent. The share of knowledge – intensive activities is below 5 percent in Romania, the same as in Turkey, while the European average is of 13.5 percent. This means that 13.5 percent of the working population are employed in medium-high and high-tech manufacturing and in knowledge-intensive services. But the share of medium and high-tech product exports has been growing rapidly in Romania.

The group of EU27 countries is behind global competitors like US, Japan – which is number two on the list, and Korea, the third ranking innovator.

The EC took into account indicators like new doctorate graduates per 1,000 population aged 25-34 in the human resources area, the international scientific co-publications per million population, research and development expenditure in the public sector as percentage of the GDP, innovation within small and medium enterprises, and employment in knowledge-intensive activities (manufacturing and services) as percentage of total employment, among others.

Read the full results of the report here.

Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Photoxpress.com and Innovation Report)