WIPO has published its Global Innovation Index for 2022. According to the report, the most innovative nation in the world is Switzerland followed by the United States, Sweden, and United Kingdom.
Some of the main findings from the report are:
- The top global corporate R&D spenders increased their R&D expenditure by almost 10 percent to over USD 900 billion in 2021, higher than in 2019 before the pandemic. This increase was primarily driven by four industries: ICT hardware and electrical equipment; Software and ICT services; pharmaceuticals and biotechnology; and construction and industrial metals.
- Investments in global R&D in 2020 grew at a rate of 3.3 percent, but slowed from the historically high 6.1 percent R&D growth rate recorded in 2019. Government budget allocations for the top R&D spending economies showed strong growth in 2020. For 2021 government R&D budgets, the picture was more varied, with spending growing in the Republic of Korea and Germany, but falling in the US and Japan.
- Venture capital (VC) deals exploded by 46 percent in 2021, recording levels comparable to the internet boom years of the late 1990s. Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa regions witnessing the strongest VC growth. The VC outlook for 2022 is more sober however; tightening monetary policies and the effect on risk capital will lead to a deceleration in VC.
The full report can be found here.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PLANET 