Innovation Europe > Collaborative Europe > Innovation Denmark

The EIS places Innovation Denmark among the top-performing EU countries, with an innovation performance well above the EU average. Innovation Denmark has been labelled an “innovation leader” in the EIS 2008 along with Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Germany and the UK. However, together with Sweden and the UK, Innovation Denmark is in the sub group of “slow growers” on innovation performance. It scores high on the first five EIS indicator parts (enablers and firm activities) and more mediocre in the last two indicator parts (outputs). Innovation Denmark tops the “Linkages and entrepreneurship” and is sixth on “human resources”, fourth on “finance and support”, eight on “firm investment”, and third on ‘throughputs’. However, in general the placement is a backdrop compared to earlier years and, more seriously, Innovation Denmark is placed low on both “innovators” and on “economic effects”.

Main innovation challenges in Innovation Denmark
1. To increase the supply of highly skilled labour.
2. To strengthen human capital formation.
3. To promote innovation by SMEs.

Action
The Danish government has reformed and reorganised more or less all aspects of the innovation system over the last eight years. The most important reforms have targeted universities, public research institutions, the technology service system, the advisory and funding structures and the regional innovation system. At the same time, Innovation Denmark have formulated new strategies and action plans regarding national and regional growth, collaboration between the public and private spheres, knowledge development, strategic research, and so on. For example, in early 2007, Denmark introduced its innovation policy action plan, “Innovation Denmark 2007-2010”. Over the past few years, Innovation Denmark has come one step closer to meeting the identified objectives, in the sense that the ambitious goals have been transformed into concrete initiatives and a funding plan has been presented.

More information on each country is available in the EIS report and its thematic papers which are available on the INNO Metrics website (www.proinno-europe.eu/metrics). Detailed information on policy measures and governance is available at the INNO Policy TrendChart website (www.proinno-europe.eu/trendchart).