2022-02-22
National Audit Office: only by increasing funding we will not create breakthrough in science and innovation
Technological and social innovations create a competitive economy, but Lithuania is still lagging behind other countries of similar development and size in terms of innovation indicators. Lithuania ranks 18th in the 2021 European Innovation Scoreboard, which compares the situation of EU Member States in innovation performance.
Over the last ten years, the National Audit Office carried out five performance audits which raised issues related to the quality and targeting of research, experimental development and innovation, and identified weaknesses and targets to be addressed.
The overview carried out to assess the impact of these audits, as well as the ongoing monitoring of science and innovation, shows that despite the national objective of moving towards sustainable economic development based on science, advanced technologies, innovation and international competitiveness, there is still no breakthrough in this area.
According to the National Audit Office, without systematically addressing the underlying problems, the EUR 756 million EU funds earmarked for science and innovation by 2027 will not change the situation. Without further measures to promote cooperation between science and business, these funds are unlikely to become breakthrough innovations.
There have been worrying trends in science and innovation for years in Lithuania. The scientific potential is declining — in the last nine years, the number of doctoral students in Lithuania have decreased by a quarter. As many as 80 % of them consider doctoral studies to be improved. The country’s higher education institutions do not attract doctoral students from abroad. Lithuania is twice below the EU average (22 %) in the share of foreign doctoral students in the country (10.1 %) and ranks 24 out of 27 in the EU in terms of the number of foreign doctoral students. This place has not changed since 2016. By comparison, Estonia ranked 14th in 2021 in Europe.
Cooperation between science and business could stimulate innovation and economic growth, but there is a tendency that in Lithuania researchers are not interested in working in business companies and business is not willing to invest in research. The largest share, as much as 70 %, of research funding came from the government and EU structural support. The opposite is the case in neighbouring Estonia, where business is the main investor in research. In 2020, Estonian business expenditure in this area made 0.98 % of GDP. In Lithuania this expenditure was twice as low.
In Lithuania, science and innovation is highly dependent on EU structural support funds, but despite this, the EU’s direct funding opportunities are not fully exploited. According to the funds received from the largest research support programme Horizon 2020, Lithuania is 27 among the 28 beneficiary countries. By comparison, Estonia received 2.7 times more funds from this programme than Lithuania.