The GII 2022 tracks global innovation trends against the background of an ongoing pandemic, a slowing of productivity growth and other evolving challenges.

The state of innovation in turbulent times 1. Innovation investments thrived at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and boomed in 2021, but their continued resilience is uncertain for 2022, as the world meets new challenges Historic data, plus the global economic recession, would have led one to expect a prompt cutback in research and development (R&D), intellectual property (IP) filings and venture capital in 2020 and 2021. The opposite happened: 

⦁ Scientific articles published globally surpassed the 2 million mark for the first time in 2021.

⦁ Investments in global R&D in 2020 grew at a rate of 3.3 percent, not falling, but slowing from the historically high 6.1 percent R&D growth rate recorded in 2019.

⦁ Government budget allocations for the top R&D spending economies showed strong growth in 2020, as governments vigorously sought to mitigate the economic effects of the crisis on the future of innovation. For 2021 R&D budgets, the picture is more varied, with government spending having continued to grow in the Republic of Korea and Germany, but being cut by Japan and the United States.

⦁ In turn, top corporate R&D spenders increased their R&D expenditure by more than 11 percent in 2020, and by almost 10 percent to over USD 900 billion in 2021, which is higher than in 2019 before the pandemic. This increase was primarily driven by four industries: ICT hardware and electrical equipment; Software and ICT services; Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology; and, Construction and industrial metals. Firms that cut R&D in 2020, including in sectors such as Automobiles; Industrial engineering and transportation; and Travel, generally – but not always – returned to R&D growth in 2021.

⦁ IP filing activity grew during the global pandemic in 2020 and in 2021, too. International trademark filings – a good proxy for entrepreneurship – saw particularly strong growth in 2021, up by 15 percent.

⦁ The biggest boom was in venture capital (VC). VC deals grew by 46 percent in 2021, recording levels comparable to the internet boom years of the late 1990s. What is more, VC has become more inclusive, with the Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa regions witnessing the strongest VC growth, albeit from a low base. The VC outlook for 2022 is more sober; tightening monetary policies and the knock-on effect on risk capital will lead to a deceleration in VC.