Despite growth in the last 10 years, the relative position of Spain and Portugal, with regard to patent applications, is a long way behind that of countries that are leaders in innovation.
Spain stands at the head of the countries of the EU-27 in the global computation of digital society indicators (connectivity, Internet use, etc). Portugal, however, is situated at the tail end.
The model of governmental support for business R&D differs between Spain and Portugal, with a predominance of direct support in the case of Spain and indirect in that of Portugal.
Spain and Portugal are situated above the European average in percentage of women researchers in all sectors considered, although the lowest participation corresponds to the business sector and the highest, to the governmental sector.