The level of innovation in regions varies considerably across almost all EU countries. This is one of the main findings of the 2009 Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS), published by the JRC's Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC), together with the Commission's Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry and the Maastricht University (MERIT).

The 2009 Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS), based on the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) approach and methodology, assesses innovation performances across 201 regions in the EU and Norway. Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic are the most heterogeneous countries, where innovation performance varies from low to medium-high.

While on average the pattern of innovation is quite stable between year 2004 and 2006, several regions, in particular in Spain and France, have improved their innovation performance. The report also shows that the most innovative regions are typically in the most innovative countries, although some regions outperform their country level.

2009 RIS clusters the regions in five groups, ranging from the highest to the lowest overall innovators:

• In Austria, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg all regions display high and medium-high innovation performance (the latter two countries comprising only one region each).
• In Germany, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and Norway almost all regions are high and medium-high performers.
• Medium-low and low innovation regions dominate in Bulgaria, Greece, Poland and Romania (all regions), in Hungary, Portugal and Slovakia (all regions but one), in the Czech Republic and Spain (about 65% of the regions) and in Italy (about half of the regions). Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, and Malta, all comprising one region each due to their small size, are also members of this group.
• In an intermediate position are Estonia, Ireland, France and Slovenia.

The report marks a significant step forward in measuring regional innovation performance although it also shows that more progress is needed on the availability and quality of innovation data at regional level. The results confirm the value of measuring innovation performance at regional level to complement the national level and emphasize the need for policies to reflect regional contexts.

Open Days 2009 stressed the importance of regional growth and innovation as a key factor for development and economic growth in regions in particular and the EU as a whole.

PRO INNO Europe has boosted this instrument that replicates the methodology used at national level in the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), using 16 of the 29 indicators used in the EIS for 201 Regions across the EU27 and Norway.

The edition of the European Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS) provides a comparative assessment of innovation performance across the NUTS 2 regions of the European Union and Norway. As the regional level is important for economic development and for the design and implementation of innovation policies, it is important to have indicators to compare and benchmark innovation performance at regional level. Such evidence is vital to inform policy priorities and to monitor trends.