On 27 May, the European Commission published its biennial report “Science, Research and Innovation Performance of the EU 2020”, entitled “A Fair, Green and Digital Europe”. The Science, Research and Innovation Performance of the EU 2020 analyses Europe's performance in science, research and innovation and the driving factors behind that performance in a global context.

Given the current challenging times, including COVID-19 crisis, climate change, loss of biodiversity, an ageing population, and growing inequalities, this year’s edition also looks at how research and innovation (R&I) can contribute to sustainability and help the EU to deliver the SDGs.

The report shows that the EU is already performing strongly in several key areas of R&I, leading technological progress in the fields of energy, climate, environment, food and bioeconomy. However, to successfully deliver on the SDGs, it is crucial that the EU maintains and reinforces leadership in these areas and to foster interdisciplinary research.

Using the classification of Societal Grand Challenges from Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, one can see that the EU leads in high-quality scientific publications in the food & bioeconomy and climate & environment fields. The figures also show the strong increase of China’s share, while the United States loses its leadership in all but the health sector. On the other hand, by applying the same classification in patent applications, one can see that the EU equally leads in the climate & environment, in addition to energy and transport fields. In the remaining fields, health, security and food & bioeconomy, the United States remains the frontrunner.

An overarching policy message of the report is that the EU R&I policy should shift to a transformative policy in order to deliver on the European Green Deal. A transformative agenda will set a direction for investments, reforms and regulation to stimulate the emergence and diffusion of knowledge and (radical) solutions for the transformation towards sustainability.

More information.