Ireland Ranked 13th for Innovation
Ireland: One of the Most Innovative Countries
Ireland has gained three places in a list of the most innovative countries. In this, some of the big players such as the United States have fallen out of the top ten for the first time in almost 7 years. The rankings were published in the Bloomberg Innovation Index that scores economies using factors that include R&D spending as well as the concentration of high-tech public companies. Ireland was ranked 13th overall in 50 countries.
Ireland: Ranking 1st in a Number of Subcategories
On top of the list was South Korea, which was closely followed by Sweden, Singapore, Germany and Switzerland. Ireland was able to rank first in a number of subcategories that included Value-Added Manufacturing as well as Productivity. However, in areas such as Researcher Concentration, Patient Activity and R&D Intensity, Ireland trailed behind the other countries. Although innovation tends to thrive in the private sector, the public sector in Ireland is strong and has been involved in quite a number of ground-breaking innovative projects. As such, innovation has been introduced into the public sector through technology procurement, organizational reform as well as technology development.
A Great Environment for R&D
As such, it is worth noting that some of the incentives for innovation in the public sector and other sectors in Ireland include self-fulfillment/prestige, idealism, professionalism, power, money/increased funding, propagation of policies within organizations, problem solving as well as public relations. The government continues to propagate R&D through policies and initiatives such as the R&D tax incentive in Ireland. Firms in both the public and private sector who aim to impact lives through innovation have a great environment to do so in Ireland.
