UK Science and Innovation Network summary: Lithuania
Published 8 January 2025
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1. Science and innovation landscape
The Global Innovation Index 2024 ranked Lithuania in the 35th place. The European Innovation Scoreboard 2024 ranks Lithuania 23rd among EU countries.
Over the period from 2023 to 2024, Lithuania has demonstrated the highest growth rate in the EU, with an impressive increase of 3.7 percentage points, surpassing the EU average of 0.6%. According to the European Innovation Scoreboard, Lithuania is considered a moderate innovator.
Lithuania’s advantages are:
- job-to-job mobility of human resources in science and technology
- population with tertiary education
- non-research and development (R&D) innovation expenditures
Gross expenditure on R&D was equal to 1.11% of GDP in 2021. R&D expenditure in the business enterprise sector accounted for 0.5% of GDP, in the higher education and government sectors 0.54%.
In terms of sources of funding, the biggest proportion of R&D expenditure (38.7%) was made up of business enterprise funds. Government funds accounted for 31.2%, and foreign funds 26.7%. The funds of higher education and non-profit institutions represented 3.4%.
Government priorities and funding
The responsibilities for the formation of research and innovation policies are divided between the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (responsible for research and higher education policy) and the Ministry of Economy and Innovation (responsible for the innovation policy which includes experimental development part of research and innovation).
The inter-institutional coordination of major R&D policy initiatives is ensured by Strategic Council for Research, Technology and Innovation formed by the Government.
The main innovation areas in Lithuania are:
- energy and a sustainable environment
- health technologies and biotechnologies
- agro-innovation and food technologies
- new production processes, materials, and technologies
- smart, green, integrated transport
- information and communication technologies
- Inclusive and creative society
The majority of the EU structural funding for research, development and innovation initiatives is given to projects related to the smart specialisation priorities.
The Research Council of Lithuania is a public entity that advises the national Parliament and the government on research issues. It implements research policy, administers national research programmes and supports the development of science and research. Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology is the main governmental institution, responsible for implementation of innovation policy in Lithuania.
Several other public entities also contribute to the implementation of innovation policy by providing innovation support services to businesses and administrating EU support and co-financing funds. The Government Strategic Analysis Centre (former Research and Higher Education Monitoring and Analysis Centre) monitors the state of national research and higher education systems and participates in their development.
Higher education and research landscape
In Lithuania, R&D activities are predominantly carried by public sector represented by 12 state universities and 13 research institutes. There are also 12 state colleges in Lithuania and several private higher education institutions. More than 100,000 students were enrolled in Lithuanian higher education institutions from 2019 to 2020. The number of international students (including Erasmus+ students) is steadily increasing and is currently 7%.
From 2015 to 2018, there were on average 8,600 researchers (full-time equivalent) working in Lithuania: 50% to 60% of them work in the higher education sector and about 30% in the business sector. The number of researchers in the business sector is steadily increasing.
The highest share of researchers is in social and technological sciences. Each year, approximately 2,700 doctoral students study at PhD level. The highest percentage of PhD graduates is in social sciences and biomedical sciences. A few government-funded initiatives are being established to promote research careers and research internationalisation.
Research strengths
The strongest research fields in Lithuania are:
- physics, especially photonics (global leader in producing scientific lasers)
- material engineering
- chemistry
- biological sciences/life sciences (in 2018 Lithuania reached 16th place in Scientific American Worldview biotechnology rankings)
- clinical medicine
- earth and related environmental sciences
In 2020, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) chose Vilnius University’s Life Science Centre, which houses 3 research institutes (biochemistry, biotechnology and biosciences), to partner with it to develop genome-editing technologies.
In 2023, Lithuania’s President announced that Bio City, Europe’s largest biotechnology hub, will be built in Vilnius. This forms part of a €7 billion investment led by the Northway group, which comprises 17 companies in the fields of medicine, healthcare, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and investment, and is supported by private investors and loans.
Participation in EU programmes
Lithuanian participation in Horizon Europe has a success rate of eligible applications of 18.5% (EU=15.31%). So far, 447 Lithuanian research projects have been awarded more than £130.6 million.
2. UK partnership with Lithuania on science, technology and innovation
In 2022 the UK-Lithuania joint declaration on bilateral co-operation was signed. This has the goal to encourage and facilitate bilateral collaboration in higher education, research and innovation including programmes and research projects between our higher education and research institutions.
The declaration posed the work to support policy exchanges between our public authorities to improve the prosperity and wellbeing of our citizens and to address shared challenges such as climate change and global health security.
3. Science and Innovation Network contacts
Cristofer Rybner, Head of Science and Innovation Network, British Embassy Tallinn (Cristofer.Rybner@fcdo.gov.uk)