Norway in the European Innovation Scoreboard 2025: A strong innovator with digital strengths and structural challenges
The European Commission has published the 2025 edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), which ranks European countries by their national innovation performance and capacity. Norway is ranked as a strong innovator but has dropped two places, from seventh to ninth, and trails the innovation leaders. Switzerland tops the ranking, followed by our Nordic neighbours Sweden and Denmark. Finland ranks fifth, behind the Netherlands and the UK.
The European Innovation Scoreboard comprises 27 different indicators that are combined into an overall score. Norway ranks ninth and is classified as a 'Strong Innovator', alongside countries such as Ireland and Germany. Norway has remained in this group in recent years, although its exact ranking has varied. The highest-performing group is the 'Innovation Leader' group, which includes three other Nordic countries.
In 2025, Norway was once again classified as a 'Strong Innovator' in the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), with an overall innovation performance of 121.6 per cent of the EU average. This places Norway ninth among the 27 countries assessed and above the average for the Strong Innovators group (114.7 per cent).
- We have something to aspire to
'I am pleased to see Norway classified as a strong innovator, but our neighbouring countries show that we still have room to improve. Limited access to venture capital, low R&D investment and our lack of ability to commercialise innovation are causes for concern,' says our CEO, Håkon Haugli.
In rankings like these, it is important to remember that European countries have different industrial structures and histories. This can have a significant impact on where we rank. Norway's economy is dominated by commodity-based industries, and much important innovation takes place through practical problem-solving that is not easily captured by the EU's indicators.
Key findings from the report
Norway has made positive progress since 2018, improving by a total of 13 percentage points, but fell from 7th place in 2024 to 9th place this year. We see particularly strong results in:
- International scientific collaboration: At 261.9 per cent of the EU average, this has doubled since 2018.
- Public–private collaboration : Indicators show strong links between research and industry.
- Digital skills: The proportion of people with above-basic digital skills is more than twice the EU average (200.3 per cent)
Weaknesses and decline
Despite this progress, Norway also faces significant challenges:
- Access to venture capital is becoming increasingly challenging, with a sharp decline of 197 percentage points since 2024.
- Intellectual property rights: Decline in applications to protect designs, trademarks and patents.
- The export share of high- and medium-technology products is low
- Innovation performance in areas such as sales of new products and exports of high-tech goods is weak
Development trends (2018–2025)
- Strong growth: Cloud-based services, resource productivity and international scientific publications
- Sharp decline: Product innovation in SMEs, patent applications
Innovation activities
- Collaboration and connections: 240 per cent of the EU average – very strong links between business and academia
- SME innovation: Above the EU average, but down from 2024
Structural factors
- GDP per capita: 183 index points, compared with the EU average of 100 index points
- Low proportion of people employed in industry, but a high proportion in knowledge-intensive services
- Strong institutions: High scores on the Corruption Perceptions Index and the rule of law
- Environment: Greenhouse gas emissions are slightly above the EU average, but are falling due to electrification
Future outlook
Norway has a solid foundation for innovation, particularly in digitalisation, education and collaboration between the public and private sectors. One challenge is that relatively few people in Norway choose to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics at higher education level compared with other OECD countries.
For Norway to move up into the 'Innovation Leader' category, we need to strengthen our ability to turn investment into tangible innovation outcomes – particularly in exports, patents and commercialisation.