This report presents the pilot version of Nesta's Innovation Index.

Key findings:

• Good policy requires sound evidence and the field of innovation is no exception. The Innovation Index was designed to meet this challenge

At the heart of the Index is a wider and more complete measure of how much the UK invests in innovation, and what the benefits of this are to national productivity.

Innovation was responsible for two-thirds of the UK’s private-sector labour productivity growth between 2000 and 2007.

The analysis of the wider conditions for innovation shows that the UK is a relatively good place to innovate but identifies shortcomings in a few key areas: access to finance, the role of demand (and inparticular government procurement) in stimulating innovation and the availability of appropriate skills.

The aim of the Innovation Index project is to provide a basis for better policymaking about innovation by developing and deploying significantly improved measures of innovation. The development of the Index is a two-year project; the publication of this pilot version represents a half-way point.

The next 12 months will be used for the gathering of more detailed data, the exploration of a number of new analyses and conceptual questions, the incorporation of feedback received on the pilot, and the extension of the Index to incorporate public sector innovation.

It is envisaged that the Index will then be refreshed with new data each year, providing an ongoing account of the UK's innovation performance. ion in the UK.

Author:
Nesta