Tracking them among SMEs and mid-caps
How many SMEs, startups and mid-caps do we have in Europe?
How many of them can be considered innovative?
These questions do not have a shared, clear answer. This is surprising as innovative firms are key drivers of economic growth, job creation and technological progress. Knowing their number is crucial to inform policies aiming at supporting their emergence and growth to contribute to the prosperity and wellbeing of our economy and society. Building on its experience collecting, monitoring, analysing and reporting on research and innovation activities in the EU, the JRC has produced an estimation of innovative firms in Europe: those that dedicate to R&D more than 10% of their total operating costs.
A comprehensive interactive dashboard is available here. Explore the detailed data for 2021 with sector and EU Member States disaggregation to find out about innovative firms in Europe: R&D expenditure, density and number of firms, incidence of R&D intensive firms, and more.
These figures informed Professor Mario Draghi’s report on the future of European competitiveness.
Access the EU Innovative Firms dashboard-
Innovative SMEs and innovative mid caps employ a similar workforce: 3 million workers each
Innovative SMEs and innovative mid caps employ a similar workforce: 3 million workers each
EU’s 175,000 innovative SMEs and 7,000 innovative mid-caps, have a similar workforce 3 million each. 45,000 startups employ 300.000 workers while innovative small mid-caps, 1 million.
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Innovative companies are key actors for knowledge creation and diffusion across the EU
Innovative companies are key actors for knowledge creation and diffusion across the EU
Innovative SMEs and mid-caps employ 3% of EU’s workforce. The ecosystems they create and the labour mobility across firms are key for knowledge creation and diffusion in the EU.