In the latest iteration of the United Nations’ global innovation index, Belgium has secured the 21st place.
This is the best result for Belgium on the index since 2013 and makes it one of the biggest growth spurts in Europe in terms of ranking on the index. Credit goes to our county’s “strong base of researchers” and “high gross expenditure on R&D,” which of course is short for research and development.
The index was established in 2007 by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, a UN agency. “Knowledge-intensive employment (11th), Researchers in businesses (11th), and University–industry and international engagement (14th)” also helped Belgium move up the list.
Of course, the seasoned Focus on Belgium reader needs no official ranking to know how innovative Belgians are, right? Just recently, for example, UCLouvain researchers made an important discovery about the way bacteria fight against antibiotics. Fascinating stuff!
