Slovenia

About the region

Flag of Slovenia Slovenia covers an area of 20,273 km² and has an estimated population of 2,040,788. Since gaining independence in 1991, Slovenia has become a member of the European Union, the Eurozone, the Schengen area, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe and NATO. Slovenia has a high-income developed economy which enjoys the second highest (after Cyprus) GDP per capita of the new EU countries, which is 93% of the EU average.

The institutional framework of innovation policy in Slovenia has gone through several changes since independence. Increasingly, the importance of R&D and innovation is being recognised in the official policy papers like the Slovenian Development Strategy 2006-2013 and the National Research and Development Programme 2006-2010. Current level of investment in R&D has been for several years around 1.5%, committing itself to achieving a Lisbon Barcelona 3% target. Technology parks and centres form top policy priority in creation of innovation friendly environment and in the improvement of knowledge transfer and technology diffusion.