BELGIUM

For Belgium, one of the Innovation followers, innovation performance is above the EU27 average but the rate of improvement is below that of the EU27. Relative strengths, compared to the country’s average performance, are in Linkages & entrepreneurship, Innovators and Economic effects and relative weaknesses are in Firm investments and Throughputs.

Over the past 5 years, Finance and support and Throughputs have been the main drivers of the improvement in innovation performance, in particular as a result from strong growth in Venture capital (17.8%). Performance in Firm investments and Innovators has worsened, in particular due to a decrease in Non-R&D innovation expenditures (-8.5%).