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Denmark among most innovative EU countries

The Local Denmark
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Denmark among most innovative EU countries
Photo: Artem Merzlenko/Colourbox

Denmark has been named as the second best country at research and innovation on an EU Commission ranking list of its 28 member states. Only neighbouring Sweden fared better.

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2016 is the third consecutive year that Denmark has been placed at the top end of the European Innovation Scoreboard.
 
Richard Larsen of the Confederation of Danish Industry (Dansk Industri, DI) told Jyllands-Posten that he saw it as a huge positive that Denmark continues to fare so well in the innovative field.
 
"We invest a lot of money in research relative to other European countries. We score particularly highly through our participation in international journals and good collaboration between Danish and foreign researchers," said Larsen.
 
"We have fulfilled the EU's targets by investing a certain percentage in public research, while the private sector has invested the equivalent of two per cent of BNP," Larsen continued.
 
In order for the EU to keep pace with Asia and the United States, it has targeted three per cent of BNP to be invested in research by all member states. 
 
Although not all countries have lived up to that target, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands are among the top rankers.
 
Romania and Bulgaria find themselves placed at the bottom of the list.
 
But Larsen told Jyllands-Posten that the good result was far from reason for Denmark to sit back and rest on its innovative laurels.
 
"If the EU is to improve its global competitiveness then Denmark and the EU need to increase investment in research," he said.
 
The EU hopes to gain ground on leading nations Japan and the United States over the next two years.

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