Lithuania has maintained its position as a Moderate Innovator in the 2025 European Innovation Scoreboard, holding 18th place among EU countries.

While the ranking is unchanged from last year, the country’s progress is evident: since 2018, Lithuania’s innovation performance has grown by 17.4 %, outpacing the EU average of 12.6 %.

One of Lithuania’s strongest results is in non-R&D innovation spending, which has reached 156.9 % of the EU average, placing it second among all member states. Public R&D funding has also risen, while trademarks, process innovations, and employment in innovative firms continue to exceed the European average. Cloud computing adoption and venture capital inflows have surged, and the country boasts one of the EU’s highest rates of tertiary education.

At the same time, challenges remain. Exports of knowledge-intensive services and business R&D investments lag behind, and the share of firms introducing product innovations has dropped by nearly 40 %. Labor productivity is another weak spot, at just under a third of the EU average, despite strong digital infrastructure.

Government and innovation leaders stress the importance of building on recent gains by encouraging greater collaboration between businesses and academia, investing in research, and developing high value-added solutions. With steady improvement over recent years, Lithuania’s innovation ecosystem is gaining strength, but further steps will be needed to transform this momentum into higher productivity and stronger international competitiveness.

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