SPAIN

For Spain, one of the Moderate innovators, innovation performance is below the EU27 average and the rate of improvement is also below that of the EU27. Relative strengths, compared to the country’s average performance, are in Finance and support and Economic effects and relative weaknesses are in Firm investments and Linkages & entrepreneurship.

Over the past 5 years, Finance and support and Firm investments have been the main drivers of the improvement in innovation performance, in particular as a result from strong growth in Private credit (12.2%) and Non-R&D innovation expenditures (13.4%). Performance in Human resources, Linkages & entrepreneurship and Innovators has worsened, in particular due to a decrease in S&E and SSH doctorate graduates (-3.2%) and the Firm renewal rate (-5.9%).