The Global Innovation Index (GII), co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), has ranked UK as the world’s second best country in terms of innovation. This is the eight edition of GII which is a widely used metric for assessing the state of innovation in various countries.
UK’s position remains unchanged from last year. However, this is a tremendous achievement as they were competing against countries like the USA, Singapore and Germany. The only country that was considered more innovative than the UK is Switzerland.
What makes this achievement even more laudable is that in 2011 the UK ranked tenth on the GII list. In a span of only three years the UK jumped forward eight spots. The GII also stated that this dramatic rise is the quickest amid the top 10 GII-ranked innovation nations.
The UK has claimed this coveted spot due to their well-rounded framework, market composure, intelligence, technology and original outputs. In addition, the UK has developed a fertile landscape for innovation. The ease of setting up and running a business complements the boom in innovation in the UK. The UK government has implied in the Productivity Plan that they are committed to supporting businesses in innovation.
“The UK has soared ahead in these global innovation rankings over the past few years, a further sign that our long-term economic plan is working. We have an outstanding tradition in producing the very best in science and research: with less than 1% of the world’s population we produce 16% of the top quality published research. This is a major factor in the UK maintaining its position at number 2 in the 2015 Global Innovation Index,” said Business Minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe DBE CMG at the Launch of the GII in London.
