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Publication - Progress report

National innovation strategy: scorecard - 2025 update

Published
25 September 2025
Directorate
Economic Development Directorate, +1 more … Chief Economist Directorate
Topic
Business, industry and innovation, Economy
ISBN
9781806431694

The national innovation strategy first published an innovation scorecard in 2023, tracking Scotland's performance against key metrics compiled from publicly available data. In the second annual update to the scorecard, Scotland’s innovation performance is compared to UK and global peers.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

3. Patent Application to the UK Intellectual Property Office Granted

3.1 Ecosystem

  • Concept

3.2 Performance Assessment

  • Performance Worsening

3.3 Description

  • Patents are traditionally used to track innovation and allow for comparison across different geographies.
  • “Patents Granted” has been selected as the metric as it is a more concrete indicator than "Patent Applications".
  • For regional comparisons, the patents granted per one million people were calculated based on the latest National Records of Scotland (NRS), Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency mid-population estimates.

3.4 Time Series

  • The number of patents granted fell in Scotland in 2024, with patents granted declining 13.2% to 237 patents in 2024 (from 273 in 2023). A drop in the number of patents granted in 2024 is seen in 5 out of 12 UK regions, with the fall in Scotland amongst the highest across UK regions.
Chart 6: Patents Granted, Scotland
A bar chart showing the number of patents granted dropped in 2024 to 237 for Scotland.
Chart 7: Patents Granted, %∆ 2023-2024
A bar chart showing Scotland ranks 10th out of the 12 regions in terms of increase in patents granted between 2023 and 2024.

3.5 Current Performance

  • According to UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) data, 237 patents granted in 2024 have first named applicants with Scottish addresses.
  • Estimated that 43 patents granted per million population.
  • 1.1 patents granted in 2023 per billion GDP in Scotland.

3.6 Previous Year Performance

  • 237 patents granted in 2023.
  • Patents granted in 2024 fell by 13.2% from 2023 levels.
  • In 2023, 50 patents were granted per million population.
  • In 2023, 1.4 patents were granted per billion GDP in Scotland.

3.7 UK Regional Benchmark

  • Scotland in 2nd UK quartile for patents per million population.
Chart 8: Patents Granted per Million Population, 2024
A bar chart showing Scotland ranks 6th out of the 12 regions in terms of patents per million of the population.

3.8 International Benchmark

  • The EU27 achieved a patent granted per billion GDP of 2.6, while Scotland achieved 1.1.
  • Scotland in 2nd EU27 quartile for number of patents granted.
Chart 9: Patents Granted, 2024
A bar chart showing Scotland ranks 13th amongst the EU27 in terms of patents granted.

3.9 About the Data

Contact

Email: innovation@gov.scot

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