INSEAD, in collaboration with Cornell University and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), published the 13^th edition of the “Global Innovation Index 2020 – Who Will Finance Innovation?” report, highlighting the importance of financing innovation especially after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic that has resulted in a global shutdown. In fact, the report commented that the pandemic was beneficial for some R&D firms’ innovation, namely in the information technology (push towards digitalization) and pharmaceutical & biotechnology sectors (renewed focus on health R&D). Regarding the financing of innovation, the report stressed on the impact of the pandemic on venture capitalists and start-ups. In this respect, the report mentioned that the world financial system is still sound, yet noted that there is little money to fund innovative ideas & projects, despite venture capitalists’ decisions to concentrate on large deals with already established firms instead of start-ups, which are facing their own challenges. According to the report, funds were heavily disbursed for the purpose of finding a vaccine for the coronavirus, which in tandem saw an international collaboration among countries in terms of R&D innovation in science. On the other hand, and in order to reduce the possible negative effects of the coronavirus outbreak on innovation, the report noted that Governments are preparing emergency relief packages to prevent short and medium-term damages to economies, yet stated that said measures are not entirely directed to finance innovation and invest in start-ups.

The 2020 Global Innovation Index (GII) comprises data taken from 131 economies and is composed of two sub-indices: the Innovation Input Sub-Index and the Innovation Output Sub-Index. In details, the overall score is the average score of the innovation input & output sub-indices, which ranges between 0 and 100. Moreover, the Innovation Input Sub-Index is composed of five pillars (Institutions, Human Capital and Research, Infrastructure, Market Sophistication, and Business Sophistication), while the Innovation Output Sub-Index comprises two pillars (Knowledge and Technology Outputs and Creative Outputs). On a global level, Switzerland came in the 1^st position in the GII 2020 with a score of 66.08, followed by Sweden (score: 62.47), the United States of America (score: 60.56), United Kingdom (score: 59.78), and the Netherlands (score: 58.76), among others. On a regional basis, the UAE came first in the GII 2020 rankings of Arab countries with a score of 41.79 (global rank: 34), followed by Tunisia (score: 31.21; global rank: 65), Saudi Arabia (score: 30.94; global rank: 66), and Qatar (score: 30.81; global rank: 70), only to name a few.

As far as Lebanon is concerned, the latter attained a score of 26.02 in the GII 2020, placing it in the 10^th position among its Arab peers and 87^th position globally, recording as such further improvement in its ranking from the 88^th place it held in 2019. Furthermore, Lebanon also came in the 28^th position among 34 upper middle income countries included in the report. In detail, Lebanon ranked 93^rd globally in the Input Sub-Index and 80^th in the Output Sub-Index. On the Input Sub-Index front, Lebanon ranked 103^rd in the world in the “Institutions” pillar (score: 52.20), 85^th in the “Human Capital & Research” pillar (score: 24.70), 98^th in the “Infrastructure” pillar (score: 31.60), 90^th in the “Market Sophistication” pillar (score: 43.10), and 80^th in the “Business Sophistication” pillar (score: 23.30). With respect to the Output Sub-Index, Lebanon positioned 76^th in the “Knowledge & Technology Outputs” pillar (score: 17.00) and 85^th in the “Creative Outputs” pillar (score: 17.20).