WIPO Global Innovation Index 2023
The WIPO Global Innovation Index 2023, which has just been published, shows the latest evaluation of innovation performance worldwide. As in previous years, Switzerland wins in many areas. New this year, however, is the inclusion of valuable start-ups, so-called unicorn companies.
The Global Innovation Index (GII) is an annual publication of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It maps global innovation trends in about 130 economies on a large data base. The indicators included in this index are measures of patent applications and scientific publications, but also R & D spending, R & D cooperation between universities and industry, and educational outcomes (PISA study).
WIPO Global Innovation Index 2023
In general, research and development (R&D) is highly valued, notes the Global Innovation Index. Also, the number of venture capital deals and patent applications is higher than ever before.
Above all, this innovation is driven by investments from large companies. Technological progress in the introduction of information technologies, health, mobility and energy has increased enormously in 2022.
Venture capital investments, however, have fallen by 40 % worldwide, making it more difficult to finance start-ups, for example. It is important to know: the previous year 2021, which is relevant for the evaluation of the Global Innovation Index, was a year with very high investments in venture capital. So the picture is not as bleak for startups as it seems at first glance.
Top 10: Global Innovation Index 2023
Of particular interest is the ranking representation of the "most innovative economies". For years, this has been led by Switzerland, and so it is in this year's 2023 Index. Sweden has moved into second place, ahead of the USA, which occupies third place.
Germany is in a fairly good middle position (8th), ahead of Finland (6th) and the Netherlands (7th), behind Denmark (9th) and France (11th).
The top 10 most innovative economies are
1. Switzerland
2. Sweden
3. USA
4. UK
5. Singapore
6. Finland
7. Netherlands
8. Germany
9. Denmark
10. Republic of Korea
France is ranked 11th and China 12th in this ranking of "most innovative economies", followed by Japan (13th), Israel (14th), Canada (15th) and Estonia (16th).
Science and technology clusters
The Global Innovation Index also spatially maps innovation power and depicted the most important science and technology clusters in the world in 2023. This refers to the areas in the world with the highest density of inventors and scientific authors.
The ranking for this shows the great predominance in Asia: The world's leading science and technology innovation clusters in 2023 are Tokyo-Yokohama (Japan), followed by Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou (China), Seoul (South Korea), Beijing and Shanghai-Suzhou (China).
According to the index, China has the largest number of innovative clusters in the world and is also ahead of the USA.
New indicator for Innovation Index: UNICORN evaluation
The 2023 edition of the GII also introduces an interesting new indicator of innovation strength: the Unicorn Score. This takes into account the percentage of GDP accounted for by young companies valued at over USD 1 billion - the so-called Unicorn Companies. According to CBInsights' Tracker of Unicorn companies, as of April 2023, there were 1,206 unicorn companies based in 50 different countries around the world.
Five economies account for 80 per cent of all unicorn companies in the world, namely the United States (54 per cent), China (14 per cent), India (6 per cent), the UK (4 per cent) and Germany (2 per cent).
If the cumulative value of the unicorns is scaled by GDP, there are five winners of the ranking:
After scaling, five economies rank first, namely Estonia (Bolt (auto and transport), Israel (Wiz (cybersecurity)), Lithuania (Vinted (e-commerce)), Senegal (Wave (financial technology)) and the United States (e.g. SpaceX (space and telecommunications), Stripe (financial technology) and Epic Games (video games)).
Technology fields
In terms of technology fields valued for innovation, this year's index points to the fact that a wave of the digital age is to be expected and probably needed to be able to make the major innovation strides of the time, this was also discussed as a special topic in last year's GII 2022.
Breakthroughs in various fields such as neuroscience, genetics, climate prediction, materials science materials science, astrophysics, energy research and vaccine development - these all depend on the development of super computers, according to the WIPO Index.
And this also applies to the second major area of innovation, which is summarised as "Deep Science". This refers to innovations in the field of digitalisation and automation, involving machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).
Our patent law firm offers expertise and knowledge in these complex technologie fields. We advise on the best possible protection that is realistically achievable.
Please contact us by phone at +49 69 69 59 60-0 or via info@kollner.eu.
