GIobal Innovation Index 2026 Spotlights Deep Science Entrepreneurship

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has recently released its 19th edition of Global Innovation Index (GII), which is published annually to rank economies around the world on innovation capabilities and performance, and examine how economic, technological, and regulatory forces influence global and national innovation performance.

This year's GII ranks 139 economies using 79 indicators, which are grouped into the Innovation Input Sub-Index (comprising the pillars of Institutions, Human Capital and Research, Infrastructure, Market Sophistication, and Business Sophistication) and the Innovation Output Sub-Index (comprising Knowledge and Technology Outputs and Creative Outputs). The economy ranking is determined by averaging the input and output sub-indices.

The GII rankings of top 10 innovation economies in 2026 remain largely stable, with Switzerland claiming the top spot for the 16th consecutive year, followed by Sweden in second place and the US holding third, both for the fourth year running. The rest of the top 10, namely, South Korea (4th), Singapore (5th), the UK (6th), the Netherlands (7th), Finland (8th), Denmark (9th), and China (10th), also maintain their positions relative to 2025, except for the Netherlands and Finland's swapping spots. Among the top 15, five spots are occupied by Asian economies: South Korea (4th), Singapore (5th), China (10th), Japan (12th), and Hong Kong (14th).

Titled "Powering entrepreneurs at the frontier of science", the 2026 GII features a special chapter on deep science entrepreneurship, leveraging a new interactive tool Dealroom - WIPO Deep Tech Startup Tracker to generate a global systematic overview of deep science startups and spinouts (firms originating from research carried out in a university or research centre), with a focus on nine deep science fields, namely, life sciences; medical devices and digital health; food and agritech; semiconductors; robotics and autonomous systems; space; energy; transportation; and advanced materials and manufacturing.

"Deep science startups and spinouts" in the GII refers to "companies built on tangible engineering innovation or scientific discovery applied for the first time as a commercial product", which are typically capital-intensive, time-intensive, and R&D-intensive, thus excluding digital-first deep tech such as large language model developers and blockchain infrastructure. On the basis of the said definition, between 2000-2025, more than 30,000 deep science startups and spinouts were created globally, with the highest number in the US (12,752 firms), followed by China (3,466), the UK (2,133), France (1,234), and Germany (1,051).

As to sectors, life sciences lead with over 11,000 startups founded between 2015 and 2025, followed by medical devices and digital health with 5,600 startups. In terms of value acceleration, semiconductors are the fastest-rising major sector, surging over 410 percent since 2020 to achieve a combined enterprise value of US$ 1.1 trillion. High-growth sectors further include advanced materials and manufacturing (grew by 128%) and space (101%). Robotics and autonomous systems have also been accelerating, securing third place both for new startup creation (17.6%) and venture capital funding in 2025.

The special chapter also discusses how deep science entrepreneurship turns discoveries into scalable ventures, what roles IP play in it, obstacles to its growth, and policies and practices that can strengthen its ecosystems. It notes in conclusion that while a worldwide deep science surge is verified, its productivity payoff hinges on a myriad of enabling conditions, among them multi-stage funding, shared infrastructure, adaptive regulatory pathways, workable IP frameworks, and bridge-building talent.