Innovation world champion with potential
According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Global Innovation Index, Switzerland remains the most innovative country in the world. However, indicators measuring the performance of the local start-up scene do not show peak values and have deteriorated compared to the previous year.
The GII uses some 80 indicators, ranging from research and development (R&D) spending, venture capital (VC) deals, high-tech exports and intellectual property filings in evaluating nearly 140 world economies on their innovative performance. Switzerland, Sweden, the United States of America (US), the Republic of Korea and Singapore top the Global Innovation Index (GII) ranking 2025.
The criteria are grouped into seven categories, and Switzerland ranks no lower than sixth in any of them. Its strength on the output side is particularly striking. Switzerland ranks second in ‘knowledge and technology outputs’ and first in ‘creative outputs’.
The picture is less positive for some indicators that reflect the performance of the start-up scene. Switzerland ranks 11th (previous year: 9th) in ‘Finance for start-ups and scale-ups’. The performance of growth companies is even worse. Switzerland ranks 17th in the ‘Late stage deal count’ indicator and 38th (previous year: 29th) in ‘Unicorn valuation’.
This contrasts with its excellent performance in technology transfer. Switzerland is the country with the most intensive R&D collaboration between universities and industry worldwide.
The fact that software is not a flagship industry in Switzerland is also reflected in the GII. It ranks 45th in the ‘ICT service exports’ indicator, but at least managed to move up two places compared to the previous year.
Globally, the GII notes a slower pace of innovation. Worldwide, R&D expenditure has increased by only 2.9%, down from 4.4% in the previous year. WIPO projects that growth will slow further in 2025 (2.3%).
Corporate R&D spending in real terms slowed to 1% due to persistently high inflation —far below the 4.6% average of the past decade. ICT-related firms (particularly in AI-intensive sectors), software and pharma firms expanded R&D budgets, while manufacturing firms such as in the automotive sector and consumer goods cut R&D spend in a context of declining company revenues.
(Stefan Kyora)