Despite slowing R&D growth and declining venture capital, breakthrough innovations are advancing, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) 2025 Global Innovation Index (GII), launched today in Geneva. GEM is collaborating with WIPO to enrich this global index by providing unique entrepreneurship indicators from the National Expert Survey (NES).
Key findings
The GII, which covers 139 economies, shows that global R&D growth in 2024 slowed to its weakest rate since 2010 and venture capital declined for the third year in a row. Yet breakthrough innovations in AI, green supercomputing, batteries, faster internet, and cancer care continue to advance.
The theme of the 2025 Index is Innovation at a Crossroads. Switzerland topped the Index rankings, followed by Sweden, United States, Republic of Korea, and Singapore. China entered the top 10 for the first time. Fast-rising economies include India, Turkey, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Morocco. The Index also underscored strong regional progress in Northern Africa and Western Asia, particularly the Middle East.
A unique partnership
Since 2021, WIPO has incorporated indicators from GEM’s National Expert Survey (NES) into the GII. These indicators assess Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions (EFCs) such as:
- Sufficiency of financing
- Government policies (support, relevance, taxes, bureaucracy)
- Government programmes
- Cultural and social norms
This data is critical for evaluating the strength of entrepreneurial ecosystems and is now a fixture in the GII. To deepen the collaboration, GEM has added a special category for teams joining through WIPO contacts.
“This is a very significant partnership for GEM, built on complementary missions and strong data synergies,” said GEM Executive Director Aileen Ionescu-Somers. “Entrepreneurship and innovation are deeply interconnected — innovation often drives new ventures, while entrepreneurs are key actors in transforming innovation into economic value.”
As a WIPO partner, benefits of being part of this special category include:
- Enables WIPO partners to engage with GEM, the world’s leading study of entrepreneurship since 1999.
- Conducting research on the Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions in a country, empowering stakeholders, including policymakers, to use the findings for entrepreneurship growth.
- Accessing operational and technical support from GEM’s Global Team.
We are excited to collaborate with WIPO to advance our shared goals!
Photo above: GEM Executive Director Aileen Ionescu-Somers with Dr. Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, WIPO Head of Section, Economics and Statistics Division, and co-editor of the Global Innovation Index (GII).