Twenty organisations from Europe feature in the Thomson Reuters top 100 innovation ranking for 2015.
Just two countries account for 75 per cent of the list: Japan and the US, “making them the true innovation hubs of the world,” according to Thomson Reuters.
The European country with the most entries is France with 10 – up from seven last year with Alstom, Thales and Valeo added to its roster. For the fourth year running, no UK companies made the grade.
China is another noticeable absentee. It joined the innovation-leader ranks in 2014, for the first time, via Huawei, but did not replicate that performance this year.
Germany has four entrants and Switzerland is represented by three companies. Belgium re-joins the group once again with the reappearance of Solvay, a chemicals and plastics firm.
The Netherlands and Sweden meanwhile have one ranked company each.
The list features companies that have applied for 100 or more patents in the last five years.
The largest industry sectors are led by semiconductor & electronic components, automotive and pharmaceuticals.
Factors going against UK innovators
The report says the UK’s absence from the top 100 can be partially explained by its comparatively lower spend on R&D.
As a proportion of GDP (GERD) it is only 1.63 per cent, compared with 2.73 per cent in the US, 2.23 per cent in France, 2.85 per cent in Germany, and an eye-catching 3.47 per cent in Japan.
“Initiatives such as the UK Patent Box, which provides tax credits and incentives to UK-based companies with profits derived from sales of patented products or processes, will take a couple of years to take effect given the lag time between discovery, protection and commercialisation,” the report adds.
British companies Dyson and ARM were both near misses ranking just outside the Top 100.
Top 20 European innovators
- Alcatel-Lucent, France
- Alstom, France
- Arkema, France
- BASF, Germany
- Bayer, Germany
- Boehringer, Ingelheim Germany
- CNRS, The French National Center for Scientific Research, France
- Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, France
- Ericsson, Sweden
- Fraunhofer, Germany
- IFP Energies Nouvelles, France
- Novartis, Switzerland
- Philips, Netherlands
- Roche, Switzerland
- Safran, France
- Saint-Gobain, France
- Solvay, Belgium
- TE Connectivity, Switzerland
- Thales, France
- Valeo, France
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