Benchmarking study about R&D and Innovation at the Spanish

The aim of this paper is the realization of a Benchmark analysis about the relative position of the Valencian Innovation System. This comparison has been threefold comparing the Spanish, Mediterranean and European regions. In order to undertake this analysis, on the one hand, for the Spanish regions, their evolution from 1992 to 2001 is analyzed according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) data. On the other hand, when comparing the different Mediterranean and European Regions, the analysis done is related to the indicators offered by the European Innovation Scoreboard for 2002 and 2003. These analyses illustrate the Valencian Innovation System’s weaknesses. The Comunidad Valenciana shows relative strengths in those fields related to public funding, such as High Education, Lifelong learning and Public R&D Expenditure. In contrast, the weaknesses are strongly related to private activities, as Employment in High Technology sectors and Business R&D expenditure. The low employment rates remark the lacking industrial structure at the Comunidad Valenciana, what arises in great difficulties to absorb the new high educated people. This situation shows a great structural imbalance at the Valencian Innovation System, clearly compromising its future development.