Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Table 1-7: Austria’s international position in various innovation indices 
Austria’s position
Global Competitiveness 
Index 2019
Global Innovation Index 
2019
European Innovation 
Scoreboard 2019
Innovation Indicator
2020
Value
76.6
(scale 0 to 100)
vs. 2018 (value 76.3)
50.94
(scale 0 to 100)
vs. 2018 (value 51.32) 
2018:
 125
(Scale 0 to 180)
vs. 2017 (value 122)
50
(out of 100)
Ranking
21
(out of 141)
vs. 2018 22 (out of 140)
21
(out of 129)
vs. 2018 21 (out of 126)
2018: 
9
(out of 28)
vs. 2017 10 (out of 28)
9
(out of 35)
vs. 2018 11 (out of 35)
EU-28 comparison
7 (out of 28)
13 (out of 28)
2018: 9 (out of 28)
vs. 2017 10 (out of 28)
6 (out of 17)
Number of countries
141
129
28
35
Number of individual 
indicators
103
80
27
38
Source: World Economic Forum (2019); Cornell University, INSEAD and WIPO (2019); European Commission (2019b); BDI et al. (2020); 
own graphic.

---

1. Current Trends
37
previous year (see Table 1-7). The countries placed 
higher scored between 76.7 (Israel) and 84.8 (Singa-
pore), meaning that Austria was only a tenth of a 
point off the world’s top 20. The best performers be-
hind Singapore were the USA (83.7) and Hong Kong 
(83.1). Leading the European field, meanwhile, were 
the Netherlands (82.4), Switzerland (82.3) and Ger-
many (81.8). Austria’s performance in a number of 
individual indicators has been particularly impres-
sive. In the “Macroeconomic stability” sub-index, for 
instance, it achieved the highest score (100 out of 
100) and thus claimed first place. The country also 
enjoys a very good position in the areas of “Infra-
structure” (89, 10th) and “Innovation capability” (74, 
14th). Other areas, however, require significant im-
provement, such as “ICT adoption” – comprising the 
sub-indices “Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions 
per 100 population”, “Mobile-broadband subscrip-
tions per 100 population”, “Fixed-broadband internet 
subscriptions per 100 population”, “Fibre internet 
subscriptions per 100 population”, and “Internet us-
ers as a percentage of the adult population” – in 
which Austria is placed 50th in an international com-
parison. The government has responded to this medi-
ocre performance in key areas of digitalisation with 
appropriate measures, including defining a “Digital 
Roadmap” and launching the “Broadband Austria 
2020” initiative. 
The Global Innovation Index (GII) reflects coun-
tries’ innovation capability. Updated annually, this 
overview comprises indicators such as infrastructure, 
market and entrepreneurial development, knowledge 
and technology output, and creativity output. Austria 
retained 21st place between 2018 and 2019 with only 
a minimal change to its overall score (51.32 in 2018; 
50.94 in 2019) (see Table 1-7). Leading the field are 
Switzerland (67.24), Sweden (63.65) and – up from 
sixth place – the USA (61.73). The Netherlands 
dropped out of the top three, falling from second in 
2018 to fourth in 2019 (61.44). In terms of the individ-
ual indicators, Austria’s performance in this index 
was very strong in the area of “Tertiary Education” 
33 See Federal Chancellery (BKA) et al. (2011).
(3rd), “Research & Development (R&D)” (18th) and 
“Knowledge Workers” (17th). The country also came 
25th in the two lower-level sub-indicators of knowl-
edge and technology output and creativity output, 
putting it on the fringes of the leading group of coun-
tries. Austria’s performance was much poorer in the 
areas of “Investment” and “Knowledge Diffusion” – 
which are based on information on market capitalisa-
tion, on venture capital finance and exports of ICT 
services and on foreign direct investment – as it 
came in 81st and 40th respectively in an internation-
al comparison.
The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) is a way 
to analyse and compare the research and innovation 
performance of the EU-28 countries and selected 
non-member states based on 27 input and output in-
dicators. Austria climbed from tenth to ninth be-
tween 2017 and 2018 and retained its membership of 
the group of “Strong Innovators” together with (in 
order of ranking) Luxembourg, Belgium, the UK, Ger-
many, Ireland, France and Estonia (see Table 1-7). The 
EIS classifies the best performers as “Innovation 
Leaders”, a group that comprises Sweden, Finland, 
Denmark and the Netherlands. Luxembourg and the 
UK dropped out of this group in 2018, having been 
members in the previous year. 
Austria’s innovation performance has improved 
since 2011 according to the EIS (from 113 points to 
125 points in 2018). In terms of individual dimensions 
of innovation, Austria’s strongest area at present is 
“Linkages”, where it is in first place ahead of Belgium. 
This sub-index includes collaboration between inno-
vative SMEs, public-private co-publications and pri-
vate funding to cover R&D expenditure by the public 
and higher education sectors. Austria’s eighth place 
in the “intellectual assets” sub-index (patent and 
trade mark applications plus uses of designs) and the 
“life-long learning” (all the learning and educational 
activities of 25- to 64-year-olds) sub-index suggests 
that key targets in the federal government’s RTI 
strategy
33
for sustainable growth and increased effi-
ciency are being met. In other areas, however, Austria 

---