Slovenia Country Report: ERA-LEARN country report

ERA-LEARN has been producing country reports since 2019. The selection of the countries is based on a combination of variables: number of European network participations, network coordination, national commitments to European partnerships and is based on the data included in the ERA-LEARN database and their combination with relevant R&I indicators from EUROSTAT, OECD and the European Innovation Scoreboard. The country reports provide an analysis of a country’s participation in European partnerships and try to explain its ‘performance’ within the overall national R&I policy context and system.

This is the first report that is done on Slovenia, whose performance is compared to that of Lithuania, Norway, Portugal and Romania. The report draws upon available literature and data, i.e. R&I strategy/policy documents and sites, EU Semester national reports, statistics from various sources, country reviews and special reports by the Policy Support facility, relevant MLE (mutual learning exercise) reports.

Slovenia recognizes international R&I cooperation, especially through European Partnerships, as crucial for its innovation goals and has made several structural changes that are envisaged to improve the national R&I system and performance including in European Partnerships. While acknowledging the strategic importance and numerous benefits of partnerships, certain challenges exist including funding constraints, administrative burdens, information overload, and limited visibility of results. Slovenia is actively working to address these challenges. Backed up by the changes already made and those planned, Slovenia has a high potential to strengthen its performance in partnerships. At the EU level, concerns were raised about the number and complexity of partnerships, the need for standardization and for a central information hub, and the allocation of funding.