Minister Lawless welcomes Ireland’s performance in Global Innovation Index 2025
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Ó: An Roinn Breisoideachais agus Ardoideachais, Taighde, Nuálaíochta agus Eolaíochta
- Foilsithe: 23 Meán Fómhair 2025
- An t-eolas is déanaí: 23 Meán Fómhair 2025
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless, TD, welcomed the publication of the authoritative international Global Innovation Index 2025 in which Ireland’s overall ranking has improved to 18th among nearly 140 countries, up from 19th last year and 23rd as recently as 2022.
The Index is based on seven dimensions that reflect the wider business and innovation environment and a country’s resultant innovation performance. Ireland performs relatively strongly in terms of the institutional and business environment in which it is ranked 10th. It needs to take steps to improve its performance in human capital and research, with a ranking of 24th
Minister Lawless observed: “I am very pleased to welcome Ireland’s progress in the Global Innovation Index 2025. At the same time however, we clearly need to continue to improve this performance in the interests of our national competitiveness and wider policy objectives. This is a time globally when Ireland needs to play to its strengths more than ever – and talent and innovation are our most important assets.”
This imperative is recognised in the Programme for Government 2025 and more recently in the Action Plan for Competitiveness and Productivity.
Minister Lawless continued: “The Action Plan rightly places research and innovation at the heart of Ireland’s future competitiveness and productivity and highlights the need to increase investment in the public research system, if Ireland is to perform in line with other small, advanced economies.”
Minister Lawless secured substantially increased resources under the National Development Plan review for this purpose. Critical actions that are being led out by the Minister include a major programme of investment in research equipment in the higher education sector and the Global Talent Ireland initiative to attract outstanding international researchers here.
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Global Innovation Index 2025
The Global Innovation Index is published annually by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, an agency of the United Nations. It reviews the innovation performance of 139 economies, among which Switzerland, Sweden and the United States are ranked as the top three (in that order) in 2025.
It assesses a country’s innovation performance across the following seven pillars:
- Institutions,
- Human capital and research,
- Infrastructure,
- Market sophistication,
- Business sophistication,
- Knowledge and technology diffusion,Minister welcomes Ireland’s performance in Global Innovation Index 2025
- Creative outputs.
Action Plan for Competitiveness and Productivity
The Action Plan for Competitiveness and Productivity was published on 11 September last. It sets out actions across the following six thematic challenges:
- Productivity: embracing research, innovation and skills,
- International: boosting FDI and exports and influencing at EU level,
- SMEs: creating and scaling more SMEs,
- Competition: regulating for growth and controlling costs,
- Infrastructure: increasing the State’s capacity to deliver infrastructure,
- Sustainability: growing sustainable Irish businesses and boosting regional development.
This Department is leading on a range of actions under Theme One, including:
- The delivery of a major research infrastructure investment programme to underpin the higher education sector’s contribution to Ireland’s competitiveness and other policy objectives,
- The Global Talent Ireland initiative to attract outstanding international researchers here and, under which, there has been a very significant number of expressions of interest already received,
- The establishment of an AI Factory Antenna in Ireland under the current EuroHPC Joint Undertaking call to enable Irish SMEs to access supercomputing resources in an established AI Factory in the EU.