A new report from the European Commission has revealed that the Netherlands is the fifth most innovative country in the EU.

Innovation Union Scoreboard

The report, entitled The Innovation Union Scoreboard 2013, assesses the innovation performance of the 27 EU member states comparatively. It looks at factors such as patent applications (where the Netherlands ranks as one of the highest in the world), investment in R&D and venture capital investment.

The report states that the Netherlands' strengths lie in it's "open, attractive and excellent research systems," and that the growth of Non-R&D innovation expenditures as well as the innovation of small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was the fastest across all of the EU member states.

Innovation leaders

The Netherlands falls just outside of the group of countries known as "Innovation Leaders," the top four in the report. Sweden leads the pack, followed by Germany, Denmark and Finland. Despite just missing out on this grouping by a fraction, the Netherlands is known as one of "Innovation Followers."

The average growth rate for the EU reached 1,6 percent during the five year period studied, but the gap between countries was shown to be widening. The main obstacle to growth was felt to be the lack of business and venture capital investment in the wake of the financial crash.

You can download the Innovation Union Scoreboard 2013 here.

Source: EU Commission