Report shows Portugal's innovation hotspots

14 Nov 2006 | News
Just four out of ten Portuguese firms were actively investing in innovation between 2002 and 2004, according to a new report.
By Nuala Moran

The Centro and Lisbon regions boasted the highest investment in innovation.

Just four out of ten Portuguese firms were actively investing in innovation between 2002 and 2004 according to a report from Portugal’s Observatório da Ciência e do Ensino Superior. The finding comes as part of the Observatório’s fourth Community Innovation Survey, which covers private sector innovation activity from 2002 to 2004.

This survey, conducted under the auspices of Eurostat, is the main source of statistics on private sector innovation in the country.

These companies spent €2.83 billion in total, representing 2 per cent of their turnover – which leaves them some way to go to reach the European Union's Lisbon target for 2010. Of that, 70 per cent was spent on capital investment in machinery, equipment and software, and 24 per cent on R&D.

The innovation hotspots are the Centro region (46 per cent of firms) and the Lisbon region (44 per cent), while in the Algarve and Madeira just 29 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively, of companies are classed as innovative

As would be expected, there are also difference between sectors. The highest proportion of innovative enterprises was in telecommunications (78 per cent), computer and related activities (75 per cent) and technical testing and analysis (74 per cent). These are followed by chemicals and petroleum (65per cent), electrical and optical equipment (56 per cent) and electricity, gas and water supply (55 per cent).

At the other extreme, textiles and leather are the least innovative industries (27 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively).


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