South Korea Listed as Top Global Innovator by European Commission

The European Commission announced the findings of the 2014 Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) on March 4 (local time). Korea nabbed the top spot in IUS rankings with a score of 0.74 point out of 1, beating the US (0.736 point) and Japan (0.711). 

The US ranked fourth by scoring 0.63 points, with Canada 0.497 points and Australia at 0.389 points. Individual EU member states such as Germany and France were excluded from the list. Among emerging countries, China got 0.275 points, followed by India (0.207), Russia (0.191), Brazil (0.178), and South Africa (0.105).

“When looking at the performance of innovation systems in a global context, South Korea, the US, and Japan have a performance lead over the EU. The US and South Korea outperform the EU and Japan. While the gap between the US and Japan is decreasing, it widens with South Korea,” said Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science.

The IUS gives a comparative assessment of the innovation performance of the EU member states and the relative strengths and weakness of their research and innovation systems. It also includes comparisons between the EU and certain developed and emerging economies such as the US, Japan, Australia, China, and India. Average innovation performance is measured by summarizing performance over equally-weighted 25 indicators in one composite indicator: the Summary Innovation Index. The indicators include the availability of a high-skilled and educated workforce; open, excellent, and effective research systems; finance and support firm activities; intellectual assets; and the contribution of medium and high-tech product exports to the trade balance.