Within Europe and also at the international level Germany is considered to be one of the most innovative countries. This was confirmed by the annual “European Innovation Scoreboard” study the results of which were recently published by the EU Commission. According to this document Germany is in sixth place behind Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark and Japan but still ahead of the USA and any other industrialized country.
The reason for Germany’s success is the high number of patents and a strongly developed high and medium technology industry. However, with regard to state-of-the-art technology Germany performs rather mediocre. Quite a problem according to the study is the below-average availability of venture capital, a low number of scientists and engineers graduating from university, insufficient further education and training as well as a below-average equipment with broad band internet connections.
The diagram illustrates the differences between the EU-25-countries (axis of zero), the EU-15 countries and Japan/USA over the past three years. Whereas the gap between the EU and the USA has virtually remained unchanged, it has constantly grown with regard to Japan. A detailed report is available on the internet. 