This report was prepared by independent experts at the request of the European Commission.
The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) measures and compares research and innovation performance across EU countries, as well as in a number of non-EU countries. Published annually by the European Commission, it provides governments and policymakers with a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of innovation in their countries, as well as how they compare with others.
The 2026 edition was published on July 9, 2026. For the first time, it includes Georgia, which participates in the EU’s “Horizon Europe” program for research and innovation.
Moldova’s Profile
According to the report authors’ classification, our country belongs to the “early innovators” group. In 2026, its innovation score stood at 18.6% of the EU average, which is significantly lower than the average for countries in its own group (45.5%).
Moldova’s innovation performance is declining. Compared to 2025, the indicators fell by 1.1 percentage points, and compared to 2019, by 2.2 percentage points.
The country lags significantly behind other members of its group. Despite notable progress in higher education, the commercial sector and corporate IT investment remain deeply stagnant.
By comparison, Romania ranks 27th with 41.8%. Ukraine ranks 38th with 24.9%. Georgia ranks 39th (20.7%).
Key challenges: a complete lack of venture capital and investment in cloud computing, and an extremely low share of small and medium-sized enterprises implementing product innovations.
In the 2025 global innovation rankings, Moldova ranked 74th out of 139 economies surveyed (WIPO, 2025).
