Lithuania leading the EU in innovation growth

Lithuania has been recognized as one of the leaders in the EU for growth in innovation in a new European Commission report. The report, called the “Innovation Union Scoreboard,” uses 25 different indicators to compare the capacity for innovation of different EU member states. It identified Lithuania as a rapidly developing business location for research and development.

The report highlighted that over the last 8 years Lithuania’s capacity for innovation has grown on average by 2.6%, well above the European average of 1.7%. The primary drivers of this growth include the high number of college graduates and doctoral students in Lithuania, and the consistent growth of knowledge-intensive industries.

Combining science and industry

One key factor that has enabled this significant growth is the targeted relationship between science and industry that has been promoted in Lithuania. Kaunas University of Technology’s extensive collaborations with industry offer a clear example of how this approach works. The university, which is the largest of its kind in the Baltics, fosters extensive relationships with companies and actively initiates cooperation to promote knowledge-sharing between researchers and business leaders. It is also a key partner in the “Santaka and Nemunas Valleys”, where researchers, international experts and businesses work together in the fields of sustainable chemistry, biopharmacy, new energy sources, mechatronics, and telecommunications technology. It also has a number of projects taking place in cooperation with German partners such as the University of Stuttgart (e.g. in ultrasound research).

“We are very pleased that the EU has identified Lithuania as a highly successful growth market in innovation,” says Justinas Pagirys, Director of Investment Development at Invest Lithuania, a foreign investment development agency. “This also shows that we are heading in the right direction in terms of the current conditions in both science and business. And we understand that continued effort in the field of research and development will be essential for the ongoing growth of entrepreneurship and innovation in Lithuania.”

Read full article in German at mittelstand-nachrichten.de