Emilia Romagna: the most innovative region in Italy

On the basis of the data analyzed by the European Commission through the Regional Innovation Scoreboard, Emilia-Romagna was ranked first at national level as the most competitive region and 67th out of the 240 European regions taken into account for the analysis.  

But first of all, what is the Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS)?

It is a regional extension of the European innovation scoreboard (EIS), assessing the innovation performance of European regions on a limited number of indicators. The RIS 2021 provides a comparative assessment of the performance of innovation systems across 240 regions of 22 EU countries. Thus, the strengths and weaknesses of individual national and regional systems with regard to innovation are assessed. The RIS operates through 4 domains and 12 dimensions, for a total of 21 different indices. Among the 4 areas studied there are:  

1. framework conditions
2. public and private research investments
3. business innovation
4. impacts on turnover, environmental sustainability and unemployment

As for the Italian case, our country is classified as a moderate innovator with 7 strong innovative regions and 2 emerging ones.  Among these 7 regions, Emilia-Romagna was the most innovative of all, placing it within the group of strong innovators together with Bremen (Germany), Brittany (France), Yorkshire (United Kingdom), Groningen (Netherlands).

Overall, the performance of the other regions has increased considerably compared to 2014, and Emilia-Romagna, Basilicata and Campania are also among the top 10 European regions for the best performance in the 2014-2021 period.

Emilia-Romagna enterprises scored very high in process and product innovation, cooperation activities and also in the percentage share of employees in sectors with a high degree of knowledge and specialization. This means that the region is always very sensitive to the development of its enterprises and also to the training of its staff. 

Emilia-Romagna has performed an excellent job in recent years and data show that; it is increasingly becoming a pole of attraction at national and international level  for students, researchers and workers. 

For more detailed information on the positioning of Emilia-Romagna in the RIS, please see the European Commission website.