Luxembourg holds steady as a "strong innovator"

The 2026 European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), published annually by the European Commission, benchmarks research and innovation performance across the 27 EU member states, 13 neighbouring countries and 11 global competitors. Countries are grouped into four tiers based on their score relative to the EU average: innovation leaders (above 125%), strong innovators (100–125%), moderate innovators (70–100%) and emerging innovators (below 70%). 

Luxembourg ranks 7th overall among EU member states for a second consecutive year, scoring 115.8% of the EU average and keeping its place in the strong innovators group alongside Belgium (5th) Germany (9th) and France (10th). Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands lead the EU, while Malta made headlines this year by crossing into the strong innovators tier for the first time. Beyond the EU, South Korea remains the most innovative global competitor, followed by China, Canada, and Australia.  

A skilled workforce remains the country's biggest asset

Luxembourg's standout strength continues to be its working people. The country ranks 2nd in the EU for human resources, with a high share of the population holding tertiary qualifications, and 1st in the EU for employed ICT specialists. The European Startup & Scaleup Scoreboard similarly places Luxembourg 1st in the EU for its talent pool. 

The report, nevertheless, points out that a low number of domestic science, engineering and computing graduates leaves local startups reliant on foreign and cross-border talent to fill the gap. 

Research system: still 1st in the EU, but cooling slightly

Luxembourg keeps its number one EU ranking for "attractive research systems," a category built on international scientific co-publications, the share of foreign doctorate students and the quality of scientific output. The country posted its highest scores this year for public–private co-publications, the proportion of foreign doctorate students and international scientific co-publications. 

The dimension's overall score slipped by 4.9% points compared to 2025, driven mainly by a drop in the share of Luxembourg's scientific publications ranked among the world's most cited. That is a short-term dip rather than a reversal of the longer trend: since 2019, the baseline year for the EIS, Luxembourg's attractive research systems score has still risen by 21.4% points overall. 

Productivity and collaboration stay strong

Luxembourg holds onto 2nd place in the EU for resource and labour productivity, unchanged from last year, with an 8.3-point gain in overall performance driven largely by resource productivity (+20.8). Labour productivity itself grew 1.0% and CO2 productivity, which tracks progress in decarbonisation, energy efficiency, and low-carbon adoption, by 0.2%.  

The country also ranks 3rd in the EU for linkages, reflecting strong ties between public research and private enterprise. It recorded its sharpest gains since 2019 in information technology investment (+55.2), resource and labour productivity (+41.2), and linkages (+40.8). 

Business, entrepreneurship and innovation

According to data from previous years, Luxembourg outperforms the EU average on overall entrepreneurial activity (9.7 vs. 7.7), the presence of young high-growth firms (1.2 vs. 0.9) and digital intensity among firms (35.6 vs. 34.2), while business creation and net FDI inflows sit below the EU average. 

Luxembourg companies are strong at developing their own innovations. More than twice as many introduce new-to-market products compared with the EU average (12.9% vs. 5.1%), and business-process innovation is also more common (14% vs. 7.6%). The report also notes that around a third are yet to consider innovation, while a mere 8.5% mainly adopt innovations created by others. Relatively few inactive firms are seen as having unused innovation potential (15.9% vs. 20.3%). 

Access to EU research funding is another strength: Horizon Europe funding per researcher runs at roughly €16,663, more than three times the EU average of €4,852. 

The wider European and global picture

Innovation performance across the EU rose 11.6% points since 2019, including a 1.7% point gain between 2025 and 2026 alone. 

“Europe’s innovation engine has proved resilient. Every single member state has improved its performance since 2019, and this year’s Scoreboard shows that growth is picking up again. But the global race is ever tougher and we cannot afford to slow down. The Startup and Scaleup Strategy, EU Inc. and the upcoming European Innovation Act are our answer, building the conditions for Europe to lead in innovation for decades to come,” notes Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation.