Innovation Europe > News > Innovation EU Vol1-1 > Switzerland

Among those, it is the only one that has an average annual growth in innovation performance above the EU average. As a consequence, it is ranked top by the EIS. For most of the innovation indicators, Switzerland is well above the EU average. Also in terms of “efficiency in intellectual property”, Switzerland, together with Germany, Italy and Luxembourg, is among the leading countries in Europe, while the Swiss score for “efficiency in applications” is above the EU-27 average (EIS 2007).

It is more the development in time of some indicators that may cause some worries. Notably, the EIS ranking of Switzerland in the innovation dimension “innovation drivers” has dropped from fifth to eighth position, and in the dimension “innovation and entrepreneurship”, Switzerland even lost three ranks and fell to 10th position.

Main innovation challenges

• Human capital formation.
• Lack of investment in venture capital.
• Slow growth in R&D expenditures.

Action

There have been no dramatic changes in the Swiss innovation policy. The most important political decision was the plan to increase the public budget for education, research and innovation by a substantial amount (6% p.a.). The distribution of these funds is expected to result in a pronunciation of the more indirect approach for innovation promotion in Switzerland, focusing on attractive framework conditions for firms’ innovation activities, well- educated graduates, outstanding research, attractive location policy and an efficient knowledge and technology transfer.

Another priority of the Swiss innovation policy is the promotion of co-operation with foreign countries on a bilateral or multilateral basis, shown by the substantial increase in the respective budget (14.9% p.a).

The Swiss government has also introduced the GSK-initiative (CH_24), which aims at expanding innovation activities to further industries, by focusing on applied R&D activities in the field of humanities, social sciences and cultural sciences.