INSEAD, in collaboration with Cornell University and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), published the 18^th edition of the “Global Innovation Index 2025 – Innovation at a Crossroads”. 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 fragile recovery in 2024 following the downturn experienced in 2023 as most innovation investments are below the long-term growth trend. The findings of the report show that all the sub-components of innovation investments improved with the number of scientific publications increasing by 5.6% and investment in research and development rising by 2.9% while the number of venture capital deal investment was the only sub-component to witness a drop of 4.4% compared to 2023 figures. The report added that technological progress was strong in 2024 with massive advancements in computer power (green super-computers efficiency soaring by 65.7%) while the pace of technology adoption remains slow. Furthermore, the report stated that the socioeconomic impact of innovation has shown tangible improvements in human welfare (better labor productivity) and economic performance, with the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic “firmly on track”.

The 2025 GII comprises data collected from 139 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 topped the list in the GII 2025 with a score of 66.0, followed by Sweden (score: 62.6), the United States (score: 61.7), Korea (score: 60.0), and Singapore (score: 59.9), among others. On a regional basis, the UAE came first in the GII 2025 rankings of Arab countries with a score of 44.2 (global rank: 30), followed by Saudi Arabia (score: 36.0; global rank: 46), Qatar (score: 34.6; global rank: 48), and Morocco (score: 31.1; global rank: 57), only to name a few.

As far as Lebanon is concerned, the latter scored 23.6 in the GII 2025, occupying the 11^th position among its Arab peers and the 90^th place in the world. Furthermore, Lebanon ranked 16^th among 38 lower middle-income countries included in the report. In detail, Lebanon ranked 100^th globally in the Input Innovation Sub-Index and 83^rd in the Output Innovation Sub-Index. On the Input Sub-Index front, Lebanon ranked 133^rd in the world in the “Institutions” pillar (score: 18.3), 63^rd in the “Human Capital & Research” pillar (score: 32.8), 120^th in the “Infrastructure” pillar (score: 27.0), 42^nd in the “Market Sophistication” pillar (score: 41.8), and 71^st in the “Business Sophistication” pillar (score: 28.0). With respect to the Output Sub-Index, Lebanon positioned 59^th in the world in the “Knowledge & Technology Outputs” pillar (score: 22.7) and 102^nd in the “Creative Outputs” pillar (score: 12.6).