Europe retains a strong position, while Spain keeps Barcelona and Madrid among the world’s top 100 innovation clusters. The challenge now is to transform more scientific knowledge into patents, technology transfer and scalable companies.

Global innovation is regaining momentum, but its conversion into technological assets and economic growth increasingly depends on protection, technology transfer and access to finance. Europe benefits from a strong scientific and industrial base. With Barcelona and Madrid firmly established on the global innovation map, Spain has a clear opportunity to strengthen its international patenting capacity.

Innovation is once again demonstrating its role as one of the principal drivers of economic and social progress. The World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index 2026 provides a detailed picture of how countries transform research, talent, finance and intellectual property into solutions with real-world impact.

The global outlook is encouraging. Investment in research and development and venture capital is recovering, driven by artificial intelligence and deep science. Nevertheless, growth remains concentrated in particular technologies, companies and territories.

Europe continues to have a prominent presence among the world’s most innovative economies and clusters, supported by competitive universities, industrial capacity and well-established industrial property systems. Spain ranks 28th in the Index and retains two ecosystems among the world’s top 100 innovation hubs: Barcelona, in 45th place, and Madrid, in 48th.

These results confirm the existence of a solid foundation, but they also point to a strategic objective: converting a greater proportion of scientific knowledge into patents, licences, investment and technology companies capable of scaling internationally.

Industrial property as both a metric and a driver of innovation

The Index does not simply measure how much countries invest in innovation. It also analyses their capacity to generate results that can be protected, transferred and commercialised. Its indicators include domestic and international patent applications, patent families, utility models and financial flows linked to intellectual property.

This perspective is particularly important because it distinguishes between the production of knowledge and the genuine capacity to convert that knowledge into competitive advantage.

International applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty reached 275,900 in 2025, an increase of 0.7% compared with the previous year. China led this activity with 73,718 applications, followed by the United States with 52,617 and the Republic of Korea with 25,016. Digital communication technologies and semiconductors were among the fastest-growing fields, reflecting the international competition to secure control over essential enabling technologies.

The PCT system is a particularly valuable indicator when assessing the technological ambition of an innovation ecosystem. An international application does not guarantee commercial success, but it demonstrates an intention to extend protection for an invention across multiple markets and requires resources to be allocated to its internationalisation. It also shows that a company, university or research centre has recognised the strategic potential of its technology before disclosing or transferring it.

Deep science: protection as a route to investment and the market

The relationship between science, patents and economic growth is particularly clear in deep science companies. WIPO identifies more than 30,000 start-ups created since 2000 in fields such as semiconductors, robotics, quantum computing, life sciences, space and advanced materials. Their combined enterprise value amounts to USD 7.6 trillion. Approximately half of these companies own patents, compared with around 15% of start-ups in other sectors.

In technologies that require years of research, significant investment and complex regulatory processes, industrial property reduces uncertainty and facilitates access to finance. Patents help clarify ownership of knowledge, define competitive positions, structure licensing agreements and provide investors with a verifiable basis on which to assess a project.

A protection strategy should not be introduced only at the end of the process. It should be integrated from the research stage, together with technology intelligence and freedom-to-operate analysis.

Global R&D expenditure grew by more than 3.3% in real terms in 2025, and the forecast for 2026 indicates an increase of 3.6%, taking total expenditure to USD 3.4 trillion. Corporate R&D investment reached a record USD 1.5 trillion in 2025.

Global venture capital investment also increased by 28%, reaching USD 510 billion, although the number of transactions declined for the fourth consecutive year. More finance is available, but it is increasingly concentrated. Artificial intelligence accounted for 53% of the total value of global venture capital transactions in 2025 and 77% during the first half of 2026.

The new geography of innovation

Innovation is concentrated in ecosystems capable of connecting inventors, universities, research centres, companies, start-ups and investors. To identify these ecosystems, WIPO analyses the place of residence of inventors named in PCT applications, the location of authors of scientific publications and venture capital transactions, without restricting its analysis to administrative boundaries. The result is a functional map of the territories in which science, technology and finance interact most intensively.

Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou leads the global ranking for the second consecutive year, followed by Tokyo–Yokohama and San Jose–San Francisco. Together, these three clusters account for more than one fifth of all PCT applications worldwide. Beijing and Seoul complete the top five.

China has 25 clusters among the world’s top 100, while the United States has 20. Asia stands out in patents and scientific publications, while the United States retains a distinctive strength in venture capital.

These different models confirm that no single indicator can fully explain the strength of an innovation ecosystem. Scientific publications reveal research capacity. Patents demonstrate technological potential and an intention to seek international protection. Venture capital indicates the availability of resources to scale.

Competitiveness emerges from the connection between these three dimensions and from the quality of the technology transfer mechanisms linking them.

Europe: strong knowledge, but a continuing scaling challenge

Europe retains a prominent position in the Global Innovation Index. Switzerland leads the global ranking for the sixteenth consecutive year, followed by Sweden. The United Kingdom ranks sixth, the Netherlands seventh, Finland eighth, Denmark ninth, Germany eleventh and France thirteenth. Overall, 14 European economies are among the world’s top 25.

The region is also home to 30 of the world’s top 100 innovation clusters. Germany has seven, the highest number of any European country. The United Kingdom retains four, while France has two. Paris, in 11th place, is the only European cluster among the world’s top ten by volume of PCT applications.

This presence reflects the density of Europe’s scientific, industrial and technological capabilities, but it also reveals a gap in comparison with the major Asian and American concentrations.

European clusters produce almost 30% more scientific publications than their counterparts in the United States, but attract only around 40% of the venture capital secured by US clusters. This comparison encapsulates one of the European Union’s central challenges: transforming knowledge more rapidly into protected assets, internationally competitive companies and productive capacity.

Addressing this challenge will require stronger later-stage financing, more effective university-industry technology transfer and greater strategic use of patents as both business tools and instruments of technological autonomy.

Spain: strong capabilities and scope to patent more

Spain ranks 28th in the Global Innovation Index 2026. Its position for innovation outputs, 22nd, is higher than its ranking for innovation inputs, where it stands in 31st place. Its strengths include knowledge and technology outputs, infrastructure, intangible assets and industrial design.

Spain demonstrates a capacity to produce innovation results, but it still needs to increase the scale and international reach of its technological base.

Patent indicators reveal the extent of the opportunity. Spain records 1.3 patents, 0.6 PCT applications and 0.4 patent families for every billion dollars of GDP adjusted for purchasing power parity.

The challenge is not simply to conduct more research. It also involves identifying patentable results at an early stage, assessing the prior art, clarifying ownership in collaborative projects and defining priority markets before undertaking international extension.

The presence of Barcelona and Madrid among the world’s top 100 clusters confirms that Spain has scientific talent, innovative companies, universities, public research centres and investment activity. At the same time, their respective positions of 45th and 48th illustrate the distance that remains between Spain and the largest global innovation hubs.

The opportunity lies in connecting research more effectively with industry and embedding industrial property considerations in financing, internationalisation and growth decisions.

Barcelona: greater intensity in patents and venture capital

Barcelona is Spain’s highest-ranked cluster, standing 45th globally by size and 59th by innovation intensity. Over the five-year period analysed, the cluster recorded, on a fractional basis, 2,070 PCT applications, 30,533 scientific publications and 1,314 venture capital transactions. These figures reflect a balanced ecosystem, with greater international patenting activity and entrepreneurial finance than Madrid.

HP is the cluster’s leading PCT applicant, with 402 applications and a 19% share, followed by the Spanish National Research Council, CSIC, and the University of Barcelona. The University of Barcelona also leads the cluster’s scientific organisations, ahead of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Forty per cent of Barcelona’s PCT applications involve collaboration with inventors located outside the cluster, primarily in Madrid, San Jose–San Francisco and Paris. In scientific publications, external collaboration reaches 85%.

Madrid: scientific strength and international collaboration

Madrid ranks 48th worldwide and 76th by innovation intensity. Over the period analysed, it recorded, on a fractional basis, 1,622 PCT applications, 40,065 scientific publications and 1,009 venture capital transactions. Compared with Barcelona, Madrid has a higher volume of scientific output, although its relative levels of international patenting and entrepreneurial finance are lower.

Ericsson is the cluster’s leading PCT applicant, with 300 applications and an 18% share. It is followed by CSIC, with 157 applications and a 10% share. The Complutense University of Madrid leads in scientific publications, followed by the Polytechnic University of Madrid and the Autonomous University of Madrid. Fifty-one per cent of Madrid’s PCT applications involve collaboration with inventors from outside the cluster, particularly those in Shanghai–Suzhou, Stockholm and Gothenburg. In scientific research, external collaboration reaches 81%.

Protect earlier, transfer more effectively and scale with European ambition

The 2026 results support an optimistic interpretation. Barcelona and Madrid are part of the global geography of innovation and demonstrate complementary capabilities. Barcelona stands out for its intensity of PCT applications and its higher level of venture capital activity, while Madrid is notable for the scale of its scientific output and its extensive international collaboration. The connection between the two hubs, which is visible in both patents and scientific publications, is a valuable asset for the Spanish innovation system as a whole.

The next step is to transform a greater proportion of this capacity into competitive technological assets. This requires industrial property to be incorporated from the earliest stages of research, patentability to be assessed before publication, ownership of results to be clearly established and PCT strategies to be aligned with priority markets.

It also requires patent portfolios to be appropriately valued and managed in order to facilitate licensing, corporate partnerships, investment and technology transfer.

The Global Innovation Index 2026 delivers a clear message: progress depends not only on generating knowledge, but also on transforming it into solutions that are protected, investable and scalable.

Europe has the science and industrial capacity required to lead this next stage. Spain has two major hubs from which to advance. A stronger industrial property culture will help ensure that innovation developed in Madrid, Barcelona and the rest of the country is converted into economic growth, technological autonomy and greater competitiveness for Europe.