Montenegro recorded the strongest annual improvement in innovation performance among the Western Balkan economies covered by the 2026 European Innovation Scoreboard, but its overall position remains less than half of the European Union average.
The country reached 44.7 per cent of the EU innovation average, an improvement of 2.8 index points from 2025. Montenegro was ranked 33rd among the EU members and neighbouring European economies and remained classified as an “emerging innovator”. The average result for that category was 45.5 per cent of the EU level.
Within the Western Balkans, Serbia remained ahead at 60.4 per cent of the EU average. Montenegro ranked second, followed by Albania at 41.6 per cent, North Macedonia at 38.5 per cent and Bosnia and Herzegovina at 28 per cent. Montenegro nevertheless recorded the region’s largest improvement during the latest year.
The strongest indicators came from small and medium-sized enterprises. Montenegro ranked first among the observed countries for SMEs introducing product innovations and performed relatively well for employment in innovative companies and cooperation between businesses and research institutions.
That result should be treated with some caution because the latest directly observed SME innovation data are from 2022, with later values partly estimated. Montenegro’s limited statistical base remains a recurring constraint in assessing productivity, tourism, research and private-sector performance.
Patent and scientific-cooperation indicators improved more visibly. International patent applications increased by 28 index points, while joint public-private scientific publications advanced by 26.9 points. International scientific publications improved by 16.2 points.
The weaker side of the innovation system is finance. Montenegro ranked 39th for business expenditure on research and development and last among 40 countries for industrial-design applications. Business-sector R&D weakened by 9.4 index points, while the wider business-investment category declined by 3.3 points.
Venture-capital availability, commercial research spending and the number of new doctoral graduates remain among the country’s weakest indicators. Digitalisation reached only 20.7 per cent of the EU average, while the indicator for citizens possessing above-basic digital skills stood at 24.5 per cent.
The figures reveal an innovation system with active smaller companies but insufficient institutional capital. Montenegro can produce entrepreneurial activity and individual technology businesses, yet it lacks a sufficiently deep venture-capital market, corporate R&D base and domestic institutional-investor community capable of financing companies beyond the early stage.
Public innovation programmes can support incubation and initial development, but scaling requires private equity, export-oriented customers and closer integration with EU corporate supply chains. The latest annual improvement is meaningful, although Montenegro’s cumulative gain since 2019 was only 3.2 points, compared with an EU improvement of 11.6 points over the same period.
