Title page 1

Contents 4

Foreword 6

Acknowledgments 7

GII Advisory Committee 10

GII Industry Association Network 12

GII 2026 at a glance 13

Global leaders in innovation, 2026 14

Key takeaways 16

This year's special GII theme looks to the future of science-powered entrepreneurship 23

Global Innovation Tracker 27

Global Innovation Tracker Dashboard 28

Key messages 29

Science and innovation investment 30

Technological progress 41

Technology adoption 44

Socioeconomic impact 47

Conclusion and outlook 50

Data notes 50

References 52

GII 2026 results 54

Who leads global innovation in 2026? 55

Who is gaining momentum? And who are the innovation climbers in 2026? 60

Which economies do more with less? 65

Where are innovation systems unbalanced? 69

What do regional patterns tell us about the geography of innovation? 75

Conclusion 81

GII 2026 Ranking of World's Top 100 Innovation Clusters 82

Top 10 clusters and other top-tier rankings 83

Biggest rank movements among the top 100 85

Innovation clusters by economy 86

Regional distribution of innovation clusters 90

Top innovation-intensive clusters per capita 93

Scale versus intensity 97

Special theme 2026: Powering entrepreneurs at the frontier of science, turning pilots into pipelines 99

What is deep science entrepreneurship, why does it matter, and what is new? 100

How large and important is deep science entrepreneurship? 102

Obstacles to scaling deep science ventures 115

Deep science entrepreneurship in developing economies: building translation capacity where it matters most 116

What role does intellectual property play in deep science entrepreneurship? 119

What policies and practices can strengthen deep science entrepreneurship ecosystems? 125

Conclusion 128

References 129

GII 2026 Economy briefs and profiles 133

How to navigate the GII 2026 Innovation Ecosystems and Data Explorer 134

How to read the Economy profiles 135

Framework of the Global Innovation Index 2026 137

Appendix I - Conceptual and measurement framework of the Global Innovation Index 277

Rationale and origins 277

Defining innovation in the GII 277

The GII conceptual framework 278

Adjustments to the GII model in 2026 281

Data limitations and treatment 281

Missing values 282

Treatment of series with outliers 282

Normalization 283

Weights 283

Strengths and weaknesses 283

Caveats regarding the year-to-year comparison of rankings 284

References 285

Appendix II - Joint Research Centre (JRC) statistical audit of the 2026 Global Innovation Index 286

Introduction 286

Conceptual and statistical coherence within the GII framework 287

The impact of modeling assumptions on the GII results 295

Uncertainty analysis results 297

Sensitivity analysis results 303

Best-practice frontier in the GII by data envelopment analysis 306

Conclusion 309

References 310

Appendix III - Sources and definitions 312

1. Institutions 312

2. Human capital and research 314

3. Infrastructure 317

4. Market sophistication 320

5. Business sophistication 322

6. Knowledge and technology outputs 327

7. Creative outputs 331

Appendix IV - Global Innovation Index innovation cluster methodology 335

References 342

Appendix V - Methodology of the Special theme 343

1. The Dealroom-WIPO Deep Science Startup Tracker 343

2. Matching deep science startups to global patent data 345

References 347

Global Innovation Tracker 32

Table 1. R&D and revenue growth rates of the top global corporate R&D spenders, 2019-2025 32

Table 2. Top 10 economies by long-run growth in output per hour, 2015-2025 48

GII 2026 results 59

Table 1. Top 10 economies by income group 59

Table 2. Innovation overperformers in 2026, by income group, region and years as an innovation overperformer 67

Table 3. Heatmap: GII 2026 rankings overall and by innovation pillar, 2026 70

GII 2026 Ranking of World's Top 100 Innovation Clusters 86

Table 1. Biggest rank movements among selected top 100 innovation clusters, 2026 86

Table 2. Top innovation clusters by economy or cross-border region ranked among the top 100, 2026 87

Table 3. Top innovation clusters by intensity, 2026 93

Special theme 2026: Powering entrepreneurs at the frontier of science, turning pilots into pipelines 104

Table 1. Deep science startups and spinouts: total count and VC deal maturity stage, top 20 economies, 2010-2025 104

Table 2. Deep science startups by sector: number, funding and share, 2020-2025 108

Table 3. Top 100 most valuable deep science companies founded since 2000 108

Table 4. The 16 most valuable deep science ventures by economy: middle- and low-income countries (excluding China) 112

Table 5. Top 20 most valuable deep science spinouts founded since 2000 114

Boxes 33

Global Innovation Tracker 33

Box 1. Aerospace and defense 33

Box 2. Unicorns 39

GII 2026 results 57

Box 1. How to use the Global Innovation Index for better innovation metrics and policy 57

Box 2. Narrowing the gap: middle-income innovation pathways 62

Box 3. Where are companies investing in R&D and high-tech? Insights from FDI announcements 73

GII 2026 Ranking of World's Top 100 Innovation Clusters 84

Box 1. Top 10 innovation clusters by patents, publications or VC deals 84

Special theme 2026: Powering entrepreneurs at the frontier of science, turning pilots into pipelines 101

Box 1. The unique features of deep science entrepreneurship? 101

Box 2. Policy priorities for deep science entrepreneurship ecosystems 128

Global Innovation Tracker 40

Box Table 2.1. Representative new unicorns, by region, 2025 and 2026 40

GII 2026 results 62

Box Table 2.1. Narrowing the gap? Innovation performance of the long-term middle-income climbers 62

Maps 83

Map 1. Top 100 innovation clusters worldwide, 2026 83

Map 2. Top innovation clusters by region, 2026 90

Appendix I Table 1. Changes to the GII 2026 framework 281

Appendix II Table 1. Statistical coherence in the GII 2026: correlations between indicators and their aggregates 291

Appendix II Table 2. Statistical coherence in the GII 2026: correlations between sub-pillars and pillars 294

Appendix II Table 3. Distribution of differences between pillar and GII 2026 rankings 295

Appendix II Table 4. Uncertainty parameters: missing values, aggregation and weights 296

Appendix II Table 5. GII 2026 and Input/Output Sub-Indices: rankings and 90 percent confidence intervals 300

Appendix II Table 6. Sensitivity analysis: impact of modeling choices on countries with the most sensitive rankings 304

Appendix II Table 7. Pie shares (absolute terms) and efficiency scores for the top 25 GII 2026 economies 308

Appendix IV Table 1. Summary of geocoding results, 2026 337

Appendix IV Table 2. Top innovation clusters, 2026 338

Appendix IV Table 3. Innovation intensity ranking, 2026 340

Appendix Boxes 279

Appendix I - Conceptual and measurement framework of the Global Innovation Index 279

Appendix Box 1. GII origins, development and GII data infrastructure 279

Appendix II - Joint Research Centre (JRC) statistical audit of the 2026 Global Innovation Index 287

Box 1. Conceptual and statistical coherence in the GII 2026 framework 287