On 2 September 2020, Cornell, INSEAD and WIPO launched the 13th edition of the annual Global Innovation Index (GII). The 2020 report has a special focus on financing innovation. The Global Innovation Index covers 131 countries and is based on 80 indicators.

According to the 2020 edition of the GII, Switzerland comes out as the best performer for the 10^th year in a row, followed by Sweden and the United States. The other EU Member States in the top 10 are Netherlands (rank 5), Denmark (6), Finland (7) and Germany (9). The lowest ranked EU Member States are Romania (rank 46), Greece (43) and Croatia (41). The lowest ranked country overall is Yemen.

The results from the European Innovation Scoreboard broadly match the results of the Global Innovation Index. However, some exceptions occur: Germany, Czechia and Bulgaria perform better in the GII, while Luxembourg and Portugal perform worse (see figure below).

Further important key messages that come from the 2020 report include the fact that global innovation landscape is shifting, with China, Vietnam, India and the Philippines consistently on the rise; that regional divides persist, even though some economies harbour significant innovation potential; and that innovation is concentrated at the level of science and technology clusters in selected high-income economies, plus mainly China.

The 2020 GII includes an assessment on financing innovation, assessing the impact of the current crisis on start-ups, venture capital and other sources of innovation financing. The report, for instance, identifies that venture capital has been declining in North America, Asia and Europe in the last quarters, but it will likely bounce back with venture capital being redirected towards health, online education, big data, e-commerce and robotics. The report also covers the impact of the current COVID-19 crisis in innovation, highlighting the importance of acting in a way to move from containment to recovery.

Finally, the report identifies the top 100 S&T regional clusters with regard to patenting and publishing performance. According to this analysis, Tokyo-Yokohama is the world's leading cluster, reflecting its strong parenting performance, followed by Shenzhen-Hong King-Guangzhou and Seoul. Paris (rank 10) is the leader in Europe, followed by Amsterdam-Rotterdam (rank 18) and Cologne (rank 19).

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