Innovation Europe > Collaborative Europe > Innovation Norway

The economic performance of Innovation Norway has been consistently very good, with high productivity, low structural unemployment, low inflation, high wealth creation and surpluses in the balance of payments. As most other countries, the financial crisis and the slowdown in the global economy are contributing to a fall in activity in Innovation Norway’s economy, with the export industry being the most strongly affected. The Norwegian economy is still however performing relatively well, with a slow increase in unemployment and stable state finances.

Innovation Norway’s performance, as measured by the European Innovation Scoreboard Indicators (EIS) has over the years been relatively low, in contrast to the very good macroeconomic performance of the country. During the last five years, Innovation Norway has been part of the EIS group of “moderate innovators” with innovation performance and average annual growth in innovation below the EU27 average.

While it remains in the “moderate innovators” category, its place as a member of the “falling behind” category is being consolidated, with a persistent growth rate below average. Innovation Norway performs particularly low on indicators of application and intellectual property, but exhibits low performance also on innovation expenditure and venture capital. However, it performs strongly on innovation drivers such as lifelong learning, tertiary education and broadband penetration.

Main innovation challenges for Innovation Norway
1. Harvesting the growth potential of new, knowledge-based start-ups.
2. Increase the number of S&E graduates.
3. Reassess and strengthen the political basis for robust innovation policies.

Action
Innovation Norway policy remains in a slow process of stocktaking, reassessment and – possibly – reorientation. The indications are strong that standard R&D and innovation indicators underestimate the relative R&D and innovation intensity of the Norwegian economy.

In December 2008, the Norwegian government published its first White paper on Innovation policy, ‘An Innovative and Sustainable Norway’. While enhancing conditions for competitive enterprises is a core objective of the government’s innovation policy, the White Paper also addresses broad issues of innovation in the public sector, in particular in the health sector. Innovation Norway intends to establish two new Councils, one for environmental technology, and one for innovation in small- and medium-sized enterprises. Moreover, the government aims to increase private investments in R&D, and to strengthen earlier initiatives for design and tourism. The new White paper on research policy, “Climate for Research”, presented at the end of April 2009 emphasises research and innovation as important tools for solving global challenges related to climate change, energy, environment, sea and food safety. It also emphasises the goal to provide a strong basis for industry and innovation in economic sectors where Innovation Norway has a competitive advantage: food, marine, maritime, tourism, energy, environment, biotechnology, ICT and new materials/nanotech.

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).