Is Britain still an innovation power — or losing its edge?

MATCH OF THE DAY: INNOVATION INDEX — BRITAIN 1, EU 0

Referee: WIPO-Global Innovation Index

Boris Johnson promised a post-EU Britain that would “seize the incredible opportunities that our freedom presents” and make British business more competitive. The referee here is WIPO’s Global Innovation Index, the test of whether a country still has the institutions, research base, finance, business links and creative power to turn ideas into real innovation. Ten years on, the answer is: Britain is still innovative after Brexit, just less securely so than the promise implied. We're trying to sell Britain as a stable, investable innovation economy again. Britain lost some of the mechanism that helps those assets scale. 

SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

This is a visible slide from elite certainty to elite fragility. The UK remains ahead of Germany, France and Italy from 2012 to the 2030 projection, but it falls from 61.2 to 58.925 while France closes the gap and Germany stays closer than Britain would like. In the official UK GII 2025 brief, Britain is still 6th in the world, but down from 4th in 2023 and 5th in 2024. Britain is still an innovative country after Brexit. It is just doing more of that work on inherited strengths than on a clearly strengthened post-Brexit base.

3 REASONS why Britain is still innovative, but less post-Brexit than it should be

1) PLAN — freedom was a slogan

The Brexit promise was that sovereignty would unlock renewal. But the official UK Innovation Strategy did not appear until 2021, five years after the referendum, and set out a vision to make the UK a global hub for innovation by 2035. Meanwhile the EU had already put a funded continental machine in place through Horizon Europe, a €93.5 billion research and innovation programme for 2021–2027. Britain had a promise of freedom. Europe had a budget, a system and a timetable. On innovation, the EU turned the fixture list into a season plan while Britain was still writing the team talk.

Plan score: UK 5/10, EU 8/10 — better slogans than structure.

2) POLICY — the pipes weakened even while the labs stayed strong

Brexit hurt the policy levers that help innovation travel from universities and creative sectors into the wider economy. The Centre for European Reform says Brexit “is hindering the supply of skilled labour and investment”, limiting access to skilled European STEM workers and dragging on investment in high-STEM sectors; its chart on business investment in high-STEM sectors shows the visual story. The Royal Society/UK in a Changing Europe analysis makes the same point through mobility, collaboration, funding and infrastructure. Reuters then captured the practical consequence: prolonged uncertainty over UK access to Horizon Europe forced stopgaps where a serious innovation power wanted certainty. Britain kept the crown jewels. It made the plumbing shakier.

Policy score: UK 4/10, EU 8/10 — strong assets, weaker machinery.

3) PERFORMANCE — Britain still scores, but Europe looks better drilled

Here is the twist. Britain is still good. In WIPO’s 2025 UK brief it ranks 4th for innovation outputs, 3rd in creative outputs and 5th in knowledge and technology outputs. That is why the answer to the headline question is yes. But the same brief shows the weakness: Britain is only 10th on inputs, and its weak spots include FDI inflows, gross capital formation and labour productivity growth. Europe’s working models now look more institutionalised. Horizon Europe is designed to spread knowledge, deepen collaboration and crowd in growth, while the European Innovation Council adds equity investment and scale-up support for breakthrough firms. Britain still produces ideas beautifully. Europe is doing a better job of turning innovation policy into a repeatable system.

Performance score: UK 6/10, EU 8/10 — still dangerous, but less complete.

FINAL WHISTLE — what this score really means

Britain is still an innovative country after Brexit, but not in the way Brexit promised. It remains inventive because its universities, science base, finance networks and creative industries are genuinely strong. It has slipped because the post-Brexit state has not built an equally strong mechanism around them. Britain’s problem on innovation is not a lack of ideas. It is a lack of mechanism.

That is the real post-Brexit diagnosis. Britain still looks impressive in the lab, on the campus and in parts of the City, but less convincing in the middle game of talent, investment, business absorption and long-term institutional confidence. If nothing changes, Britain can remain innovative and still become less strategically formidable. It will keep producing sparks while losing control of the wiring. And that is where the wider league table becomes dangerous: one good match report can still hide a weakening season.

SEE WHERE BRITAIN REALLY STANDS

The Power Brief gives you the match. The Situation Report gives you the season. It shows whether Britain’s innovation slide is a temporary wobble or part of a deeper Smart Power decline.