While other countries are strategically investing in technology and resilience, the Netherlands is lagging behind. Insufficient innovation creates dependencies, hinders opportunities for our entrepreneurs, puts jobs at risk, threatens economic security, and in the long term, the affordability of public services such as healthcare and safety.

Minister Karremans (Economic Affairs): “Our position on this ranking seems to suggest: ‘innovation is doing well here’. But upon closer inspection, the honest conclusion is that we all need to do more. We are investing too little, both privately and publicly, in innovation, not bringing our good knowledge sufficiently to the market, and there are few knowledge-intensive companies in the Netherlands. Other countries are making extra strides, and we must do the same. Because we must earn first before we can spend.”

The currently good position of the Netherlands is mainly due to our science, education, digitization, and public-private collaboration. But if we do not invest more now, we will lose that position in the future. In terms of investments in research and development (R&D), we are only number 9 and lag far behind countries like Germany (3.1%), Austria (3.3%), Belgium (3.3%), and Sweden (3.6%). Together with countries like France (2.2%), Slovenia (2.1%), and the Czech Republic (1.8%), the Netherlands has not met the 3% norm for years, despite previous ambitions to catch up.

Innovation leaders are the countries that score more than 25% above the EU average. The EIS assesses all EU member states on 32 indicators and compares these results with other countries within and outside Europe. It includes investments in research and development, public-private collaboration, innovation within SMEs, digitization, patent applications, quality of research, and the level of employment within innovative companies.

Read the European Innovation Scoreboard 2025.