Hungary has moved up a single place since last year in the Global Innovation Index which measures the performance of 132 economies in terms of their innovation, the ministry of innovation and technology (ITM) said on Tuesday.
Notwithstanding the coronavirus pandemic, Hungary was among ten European countries that improved on the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) rankings, based on around 80 indicators, József Bódis, the ministry’s state secretary for higher education, innovation, and vocational training, said in a statement.
Switzerland, Sweden, the US, UK, and South Korea topped the list, while Hungary is in 34th place overall and 22nd among 39 European countries, ahead of Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Russia, and Slovakia. In terms of knowledge creation and technological results, Hungary was in 20th place overall.
Bódis said Hungarian universities were also advancing in various higher education rankings and, more broadly, the WIPO result indicated that Hungarian innovation policy was on the right track.
The government, he said, was steadily increasing RDI spending, which exceeds 700 billion forints (EUR 2bn), over twice as much as in 2010. This year, government support totals 182 billion forints for RDI tenders, he said.
Featured photo illustration by Zoltán Máthé/MTI
