History
Innovation is important for driving economic progress and competitiveness – both for developed and developing economies. Many governments are putting innovation at the center of their growth strategies. In that light, measuring innovation and providing a rigorous statistical benchmark that attempts to capture national innovation ecosystems is at the core of the WIPO Global Innovation Index team and mandate.
The Global Innovation Index (GII) project was launched by Professor Soumitra Dutta in 2007 during his tenure at INSEAD. The goal was to find and determine metrics and methods that could capture a picture of innovation in society that is as complete as possible. WIPO started its association with the GII in 2011 and began co-publishing the GII in 2012. In 2013, Cornell University joined as co-publisher, with Professor Dutta representing the GII at Cornell University and Bruno Lanvin at INSEAD. The GII continued to be co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD and WIPO up to 2020. As of 2021, the GII is published by WIPO in partnership with the Portulans Institute, various corporate and academic network partners and the GII Advisory Board.
CURRENT REPORTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
GII Framework
The Global Innovation Index (GII) is an evolving project that builds on its previous editions while incorporating newly available data and that is inspired by the latest research on the measurement of innovation. The GII 2021 model includes 132 economies, which represent 94.3% of the world’s population and 99.0% of the world’s GDP in purchasing power parity current international dollars. The GII relies on two sub-indices—the Innovation Input Sub-Index and the Innovation Output Sub-Index—each built around pillars. Three measures are calculated:
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Innovation Input Sub-Index: Five input pillars capture elements of the economy that enable and facilitate innovative activities.
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Innovation Output Sub-Index: Innovation outputs are the result of innovative activities within the economy. Although the Output Sub-Index includes only two pillars, it carries the same weight as the Input Sub-Index in calculating the overall GII scores.
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The overall GII score is the average of the Input and Output Sub-Indices, on which the GII economy rankings are then produced.
Each of the five input and two output pillars is divided into three sub-pillars, each of which is composed of individual indicators, a total of 81 this year. Sub-pillars are calculated using the weighted average of its individual indicators and are normalized to take the form of scores between 0 and 100. Pillar scores are calculated using the weighted average of its sub-pillar scores.
The GII pays special attention to presenting a scoreboard for each economy that includes strengths and weaknesses (see Economy profiles); providing data sources and definitions (Appendix III); and detailed technical notes and adjustments to the GII framework, including a detailed analysis of the factors influencing year-on-year changes (Appendix I). In addition, since 2011 the GII has undergone an independent statistical audit performed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Union.
ADVISORY BOARD
In 2011, an Advisory Board was established to provide advice on the research underlying the Global Innovation Index (GII), generate synergies at its stages of development, and assist with the dissemination of its messages and results. The Advisory Board is a select group of leading international practitioners with expertise in the realm of innovation. Its members are from diverse geographical and institutional backgrounds and participate in their personal capacity. We extend our gratitude to all Advisory Board members for their continuous support and our collaboration.
GII 2021 ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS
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Amy L. Burke
Program Director, Science and Engineering Indicators Program, National Center for Science & Engineering Statistics, National Science Foundation (NSF), United States of America (U.S.)
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John Kao
Chair, Institute for Large Scale Innovation and former Harvard Business School Professor, United States of America (U.S.)
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Victor Zhixiang Liang
Senior Vice President, Baidu, China
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Raghunath Anant Mashelkar
President, Global Research Alliance; National Research Professor, National Chemical Laboratory; former Director General, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and former Chairperson, National Innovation Foundation, India
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Philippe Kuhutama Mawoko
Professor, Université du Kwango, Democratic Republic of the Congo and former Executive Secretary, The African Observatory for Science, Technology and Innovation (AOSTI), African Union Commission
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Monika Schnitzer
Member, German Council of Economic Experts and Professor, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU), Germany
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Heizo Takenaka
Professor Emeritus, Keio University, Japan; former Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy; former Minister of State for Financial Services and other Ministerial positions and World Economic Forum Foundation Board Member
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Pedro Wongtschowski
Chair, Board of Directors, Ultrapar Participações S.A. and Member of the Board of Directors, Embraer S.A. and Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira S.A., Brazil
PARTNERS
Corporate Network partners
Since its inception in 2007, the GII has been supported by Knowledge Partners drawn from the private sector; more specifically, firms, consultancies, or industry associations keen to promote innovation and spur competitiveness. Their contribution is an important source of influence for the GII – firms and private sector entities are, after all, at the heart of innovation.
As of 2021, these partners constitute the GII’s Corporate Network, supported by the Portulans Institute. In 2021, the GII Corporate Network comprises the Confederation of Indian Industry (the longest-standing corporate partner since 2008), the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (a partner since 2017), and the Turkish Exporters Assembly, which joined this year. We extend our gratitude to all corporate partners for their invaluable support.
Academic Network partners
In 2021, an Academic Network was established to engage world-leading universities – faculty members and graduate students included – in GII research and support the dissemination of GII results within the academic community. The Academic Network welcomes the contribution of researchers and institutions active in diverse fields, including business management, law, public policy and science. We extend our gratitude to all Academic Network partners for their support.
CONTACT US
For all general, research, or media inquiries, please contact us at: gii@wipo.int
Main contact persons:
Vanessa Behrens
Project Manager
Sacha Wunsch-Vincent
GII Co-Editor