2004 - 2005 Country Reports on innovation policy trends

The 35 reports cover all 25 EU Member States, Romania, Bulgaria, the three associated EFTA countries, Switzerland and Turkey as well as three country groups outside Europe: NAFTA/Brazil, the Asian countries and the MEDA countries.

Drafted by national experts acting as country correspondents for the TrendChart on Innovation in Europe, the reports provide an in-depth analysis of policy trends in 2004-2005 and an assessment of the overall environment for innovation in each country.

The reports begin with a critical analysis of the national innovation governance system, describing the nature and function of the most important innovation actors and assessing the efficiency of the structures of the national innovation system. Where appropriate, regional innovation structures are also highlighted. The country reports thus serve as a useful tool to compare the various innovation systems throughout Europe and to show the policy responses of different countries to the innovation challenge.

Experiences made in one country can help other countries define their policy mix and find solutions to common problems. The reports therefore also emphasise the importance of policy learning and show how and to what extent different countries take into account past experiences when defining new policies or policy measures both within the national innovation system and across Europe. Policy makers are thus encouraged to use innovation policy knowledge from abroad when making political choices at home. The country reports can serve as an important source of information in this context.

Building on the analyses of the national innovation systems, the country reports move on to an assessment of the policy developments that have taken place in the reporting period. For each country, recent trends in innovative performance and competitiveness are identified and comparative values for other countries are given in order to determine the country's relative position in Europe and beyond. In this context, reference is made to several international benchmarking studies carried out by the World Economic Forum, the World Bank or the OECD.

The impact of such studies, as well as the existing challenges and opportunities in the national innovation systems, often shape the general innovation policy debate in a country. In order to understand the decisions made in each national context, it is necessary to be aware of the current state of the policy debate. The country reports therefore highlight the most important aspects of the national policy debates and point to the most important policy events that have taken place throughout the reporting period.


All country reports and country group reports can be downloaded from the public TrendChart website at http://trendchart.cordis.lu/country_reports.cfm. They are freely available and can be distributed to all interested parties.

Source: http://trendchart.cordis.lu