Innovation Capabilities Outlook 2026: New WIPO Report Shows Countries’ Innovation-Related Strengths
GENEVA, January 29, 2026 – WIPO today launched its new “Innovation Capabilities Outlook” (ICO) report, which analyzes billions of data points to show how countries can better leverage their science, technology, entrepreneurship and production capacity to generate significant increases in the kinds of innovations that improve the world.
So far, only 10 percent of countries surveyed are fulfilling their technological potential, according to the WIPO ICO report, developed in partnership with Harvard University's Growth Lab. The report analyzes 2.5 billion data points to map more than 2,500 innovation capabilities in 193 countries such as robotics, machine learning, and batteries. It is designed to guide policymakers, business leaders and others in how to promote innovation based on existing strengths.
The analysis reveals that innovation success stems not from isolated capabilities but from how different innovation strengths connect and reinforce each other. Countries with strong links among science, technology, entrepreneurship, and production consistently outperform those with scattered, disconnected capabilities.
Among the key findings:
- The world can use the existing innovation capabilities more efficiently: Countries could generate up to 26% more technologies, 15% more entrepreneurial innovations and 12% more scientific discoveries every year by better leveraging the innovation capabilities they already possess.
- Most economies have not yet developed complex technological capabilities: Technological capabilities in patents represent the rarest and most demanding innovation capabilities to develop, but they are also the most rewarding. Yet less than 5% of the countries manage to develop them.
- Developing more complex innovation capabilities is the key to success: Every year, only one in three countries upgrades its capabilities towards rarer and more-rewarding fields of innovation.
The Innovation Capabilities Outlook provides a new intelligence framework that helps policymakers with strategic decision-making. Rather than prescribing universal solutions, it identifies which innovation fields are most accessible for each economy based on their existing capabilities, while quantifying the risks and rewards of different development pathways.
Background
The Innovation Capabilities Outlook 2026 marks the first edition of WIPO's annual innovation intelligence series, designed to track evolving patterns and emerging opportunities in the global innovation landscape.