"The 'Innovation Indicator' is a joint initiative of Deutsche Telekom Stiftung and Bundesverbandes der Deutschen Industrie (BDI) started in 2005. From 2011 on, the Innovation Indicator is produced and reported by a consortium of the Fraunhofer-Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (Fraunhofer ISI), the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) und the Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Centre on Innovation and Technology at the University of Maastricht (MERIT). The Innovation Indicator evaluates Germany’s innovation performance as well as the conditions for innovation and benchmarks Germany against the world’s leading industrial nations. The analyses enter into a country ranking of innovativeness. A special feature of the Innovation Indicator compared to other indicator-based country rankings is a novel approach for selecting indicators. Using a conceptual model that links input and output indicators, econometric analysis were performed in order to separate relevant from non-relevant indicators and to avoid redundancy among indicators. The Innovation Indicator covers a variety of thematic areas, ranging from education and science to research, new technologies and innovation and also captures the environment for innovation determined by policy and society. In addition, special thematic analysis look at the role of vocational training, diversity in innovation processes, innovation performance of German States, and catch-up in innovation in emerging economies.

Further information on this project can be found here: www.innovationsindikator.de.