Portugal strengthens its position in the European innovation landscape, rising from 19th place in 2024 to 16th in 2025 in the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), reflecting sustained progress in several key indicators. The country remains in the Moderate Innovator category and is approaching the EU average with an index of 90.7%, up three percentage points from 2024 and nine from 2018. Also noteworthy is the country’s position in the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2025 (RIS), which recognizes, for the first time, the Greater Lisbon region as a Strong Innovator—the only Portuguese region with this classification in RIS25.
The EIS 2025, published by the European Commission, ranks Portugal 16th among the 27 Member States. The report highlights the country’s strong performance in several indicators, with particular emphasis on:
- Public support for business R&D, where Portugal leads the EU, with 185.8% of the European average;
- Sales of new innovations on the market or within the company, which reach 133% of the EU average, placing the country in 4th position;
- Digitization, with high indicators for high-speed internet access (126.1%), digital skills (111.2%), and adoption of cloud computing;
- And growth in the number of ICT specialists, reflecting greater technological qualifications among the workforce.
At the regional level, RIS 2025 reinforces the country’s innovative positioning by recognizing the Greater Lisbon region as a Strong Innovator, with 109.6% of the European Union average. Greater Lisbon currently ranks 77th in Europe, with an increase of 18.7% since 2018.
This region leads among the nine Portuguese regions, standing out in areas such as ICT employment, scientific co-publications, and sales of innovations.
Central Portugal also ranks above the average for the Moderate Innovators group, falling into the Moderate+ category with 90.1% of the EU average. All Portuguese regions have seen improvements since 2018, signaling positive and cohesive progress in the national innovation system.
The EIS 2025 presents a comparative assessment of the performance in Research and Innovation of the Member States of the European Union, other European countries, and global competitors. This report allows countries to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their national innovation systems and identify the challenges that must be addressed.
RIS 2025 complements the EIS by analyzing 241 European regions, allowing for a more detailed understanding of the territorial dynamics of innovation.
Further information:
European Innovation Scoreboard – European Commission
