INSEAD, in collaboration with Cornell University and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), published the 17^th edition of the “Global Innovation Index 2024 – Unlocking the Promise of Social Entrepreneurship” report. The report revealed that the Global Innovation Index (GII) provides a detailed analysis of the current state of global innovation. The findings of the report focus on four key stages of the innovation cycle, namely science and innovation investment, technological progress, technology adoption, and the socioeconomic impact of innovation. According to the report, innovation investments experienced a significant downturn in 2023 following a boom between the years 2020 and 2022, as the number of scientific publications saw a 5% decline during the concerned year and international patent filings declined by 1.8%. The report added that technological progress was strong in 2023 especially in the health-related field and computing power, while the rate of progress of green technologies is still lagging. In addition, the report revealed that technology adoption increased in 2023 especially in robotics and electric vehicles. Furthermore, the report stated that the socioeconomic impact of innovation has turned positive in 2023, with several indicators reporting growth compared to the year 2022 yet remaining below pre-pandemic levels.

The 2024 GII comprises data collected from 133 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. 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 2024 with a score of 67.5, followed by Sweden (score: 64.5), the United States (score: 62.4), Singapore (score: 61.2), and the United Kingdom (score: 61.0), among others. On a regional basis, the UAE came first in the GII 2024 rankings of Arab countries with a score of 42.8 (global rank: 32), followed by Saudi Arabia (score: 33.9; global rank: 47), Qatar (score: 32.9; global rank: 49), and Morocco (score: 28.8; global rank: 66), only to name a few.

As far as Lebanon is concerned, the latter scored 21.5 in the GII 2024, placing it in the 11^th position among its Arab peers and 94^th position globally. Furthermore, Lebanon ranked 16^th among 38 lower middle-income countries included in the report. In detail, Lebanon ranked 101^st globally in the Input Innovation Sub-Index and 88^th in the Output Innovation Sub-Index. On the Input Sub-Index front, Lebanon ranked 128^th in the world in the “Institutions” pillar (score: 14.7), 59^th in the “Human Capital & Research” pillar (score: 33.1), 116^th in the “Infrastructure” pillar (score: 24.1), 45^th in the “Market Sophistication” pillar (score: 38.5), and 80^th in the “Business Sophistication” pillar (score: 23.6). With respect to the Output Sub-Index, Lebanon positioned 80^th in the “Knowledge & Technology Outputs” pillar (score: 17.8) and 93^rd in the “Creative Outputs” pillar (score: 14.7).