From Data to Insights: Decoding Cyprus’ standing in the European Innovation Scoreboard 2024

PART I

According to the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) 2024, Cyprus retains its rightful place among Strong Innovators ranking 10th among member states.

The data in the report tells a story of the policies, strategies, investments, and incentives in each country and the extent to which efforts to improve research and innovation performance have been consistent over the years.

In the case of Cyprus, targeted investments and measures translate into continuous growth which is noted across multiple dimensions over the 2017-2024 period. Yearly improvements range from 1.6% in 2018 to an impressive 3.3% in 2024. According to the report, each year showed consistent improvement and the overall rise of 39% is the largest increase in performance of any of the EU countries in comparison to 2017! The policies, the strategies, the investments and the incentives of recent years are yielding rewards!

The country ranks 1st across EU Member States in Linkages which tracks the existence of an integrated and well interlinked environment where innovation can thrive and positively impact both the economy and the society. It measures the collaboration efforts between innovative enterprises and other enterprises and institutions which allow for pooling of financial and intellectual resources to tackle complex challenges. It also accounts for research collaborations between the private and public sector which facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology. This further accelerates innovation by combining the strengths of the two; the ability of research to create cutting-edge solutions and the capacity of the industry to transform them into marketable products.

High rankings for Cyprus are also noted in the Innovators dimension (2nd place among EU member states) and Attractive Research Systems (5th place). The country is making noticeable progress in terms of companies introducing new products/services/processes in the market while it continues to produce high quality scientific outputs.

Cyprus is also emerging as a major player in the startup world. According to the 2024 Global Startup Ecosystem Index Report by StartupBlink, a leading startup ecosystem ranking, Cyprus boasts the fastest-growing ecosystem in the top 50. Eli David, CEO of StartupBlink, praises Cyprus for having the best business environment for startups in Europe. This emphasis on creating startups and attracting high-quality ventures positions Cyprus to become a leading hub in the coming years.

There are of course areas for improvement! These include Finance and Support (24th place), which measures the financing capacity of innovation, Firm Investments (21st place), assessing the innovation expenditures of the private sector and Environmental sustainability (22nd place), which measures the reduction of the negative impact on the environment.

As the 2024 European Semester Country Report for Cyprus notes, the country needs to do more to pump up productivity-enhancing investment which can further boost the potential for growth, including R&D. It also notes that access to finance can also be improved, including VC investments. The startups of today are the corporates of tomorrow! Today’s startups and scale-ups possess the power to diversify our economy. The national R&I strategy aims to make more funding available for startups and scale-up through the funding programmes of the Research & Innovation Foundation, the Cyprus Equity Fund and the establishment of the National Promotional Agency. As far as Environmental Sustainability is concerned, there is a clear need to accelerate the green transition through investments.

The findings are therefore clear: it is now time to preserve the momentum of our success and step up our game!

By Theodoros Loukaidis, Director General of the Cyprus Research & Innovation Foundation (RIF)

Co-authored with Eli David Rokah, CEO StartUpBlink