"Moderate Innovator" Cyprus drops 14.6 points in EU Innovation Index

Cyprus, now classified as a “moderate innovator” with a score of 84.1, has fallen by 14.6 percentage points in the 2025 European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) compared to 2024, when it was considered a “strong innovator.” Despite this drop, Cyprus has improved its overall score by 17.6 percentage points since 2018.

According to the EIS, Cyprus ranks 17th among EU Member States, and 21st among the EU and neighbouring countries. Its performance is below the average of Moderate Innovators in the EU (84.1% vs 85.9% of the EU average in 2025).

Cyprus ranks first in EU in trademark applications. Other relative strengths of the country include public-private co-publications and international scientific co-publications. Cyprus also ranks high (3rd in EU) in population with tertiary education.

On the other hand, Cyprus is ranked last in high-tech imports from outside the EU and R&D expenditure in the business sector and 25th in venture capital expenditure. The low score in direct and indirect government support for business R&D is also considered a major weakness.

“Financing R&D remains a significant challenge in Cyprus as the country is well behind the EU average in 2025 in both dimensions of finance and support (19.9% of the EU average in 2025) and firm investments (35.9% of the EU average in 2025)” the report notes, adding that in the case of non-R&D innovation expenditures Cyprus performs closer to the EU average in 2025 with 83.1%.

However, the report shows that Cyprus’ performance since 2018 has increased faster than the EU average, with a 17.6% increase since 2018, compared to a 12.6% increase for the EU average

Since 2018, Cyprus has shown strong increases in cloud computing, in public-private co-publications and high-speed internet access. Since last year, Cyprus has shown an increase in foreign doctorate students as a percentage of all doctorate students, in high-speed internet access and in cloud computing

On the other hand, since 2018, Cyprus has shown strong decreases in design applications, in high-tech imports from outside the EU and in venture capital expenditures. Compared to last year, Cyprus has seen a strong decrease in innovative SMEs collaborating with others, in SMEs introducing business process innovations and in employment in innovative enterprises.

This year, the EIS shows a slight decline of 0.4 percentage points between 2024 and 2025. According to the European Commission, the recent slowdown highlights the need for accelerated action in the face of uncertainty and growing global competition, as underlined in the Competitiveness Compass, the Choose Europe initiative, and the Startup and Scaleup Strategy.

In total, the EU's innovation performance has increased by 12.6 percentage points since 2018. In 2025, only 13 Member States improved their score since last year, with Malta (+7.6 percentage points) and Luxembourg (+5 percentage points) seeing the largest gains. Since 2018, all EU countries have boosted their innovation performance, although progress varies from 0.9 percentage points in Luxembourg to 30 percentage points in Estonia.