The OECD Review of Lithuania’s Innovation Policy 2016 is part of a series of OECD country reviews of innovation policy. It was requested by the Lithuanian authorities, represented by the Ministry of Economy and was carried out by the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) under the auspices of the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP).

Following independence Lithuania has made much progress in developing the institutions and framework conditions of a modern market-based economy, which provided the basis for Lithuania’s success in narrowing the gap with the more advanced countries in the OECD. While in 1995, Lithuania’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita stood at onethird of the OECD average, it exceeded two-thirds in 2015. Thanks to its economy’s high degree of flexibility, underpinned by a generally favourable regulatory framework, Lithuania weathered the crisis of the late 2000s better than many peer countries.

This chapter presents an overall assessment of Lithuania’s innovation system and policy, reflecting the key findings of the review. It identifies strengths and weaknesses and key issues for innovation policy, and develops specific policy recommendations for improving Lithuania’s performance in science, technology and innovation.

This chapter discusses Lithuania’s macroeconomic performance and framework conditions for innovation. The first section presents macroeconomic developments before and after the crisis and sketches salient features of the Lithuania economy, patterns of structural change and productivity-related developments. The second section looks at the current state of framework conditions as they relate to entrepreneurship and innovation. The final section deals with infrastructures which are important to enterprise and innovation systems in a variety of ways.

This chapter reviews Lithuania’s aggregate innovation performance relative to OECD countries with comparable or advanced levels of innovation system development, similar size and geographical proximity. The chapter starts by examining expenditure across institutional sectors (business, higher education and government) and considers the availability of human resources for innovation. It then reviews indicators of innovation output (drawn from bibliometric, patent, trademark and design data) to highlight qualitative and quantitative characteristics of Lithuania’s innovation system.

This chapter describes the main actors in the Lithuanian innovation system – business enterprises, higher education institutions and public research organisations – and highlights their respective roles in the development of innovation activities in recent years. It reviews competences for innovation, and related strengths and weaknesses.

This chapter examines public innovation policy and governance in Lithuania. It begins with an overview of the historical evolution of science, technology and innovation policy in Lithuania. It then examines the main policy actors and governance arrangements under the light of observations made in earlier chapters and outlines areas in need of dedicated policy attention.