Russia ascended from 47th to 45th place in the 2021 Global Innovation Index (GII) released earlier this week, USRBC reported, citing the official GII website.

Published by the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization, the GII ranks 132 economies by their success in innovation based on criteria that include human capital, scientific research, infrastructure development, FDI, and the quality of institutions.

Russia’s positions remained relatively strong on human capital (29th place), teaching science and engineering (13th), high-tech employment (18th), the volume of intellectual property payments (23rd), and R&D (32th). Russia’s rankings declined moderately on on-the-job training (94th), net FDI inflows (97th), and ecological sustainability (101th). Despite some improvements, Russia continued to rank poorly on the quality of state regulation (100th) and the rule of law (109th).

Russia has retreated slightly in the Global Innovation Index over the past several years after ascending from 62nd to 43rd place from 2013–16.

On par with the 2020 GII, Switzerland, Sweden, and the United States topped the 2021 ranking, followed by the United Kingdom, South Korea, and the Netherlands. China advanced from 14th to 12th place.