Geneva, Switzerland, January 2026 – The WIPO-GII iLens Innovation Data Lab, held its fifth workshop on innovation measurement, in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), titled Industrialization, Investment and Innovation: A Measurement Agenda. Opened by UNIDO’s Nobuya Haraguchi, Chief, Industrial Policy Research, and WIPO’s Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, the hybrid event convened leading economists, data scientists, statisticians and policy experts to examine how metrics can be refined to better capture the dynamics of industrial transformation and technological upgrading.
The first session, chaired by Lorena Rivera Leon (WIPO), focused on refining Global Innovation Index (GII) indicators for high-tech manufacturing and industrial diversification. Presentations by UNIDO’s Fernando Cantu Bazaldua and WIPO’s Oriol Gisbert Marti sparked discussions on moving beyond aggregate measures to capture capabilities that signal participation in global value chains. Nicola Cantore (UNIDO) presented avenues for new industrial indicators, while expert insights were provided by discussants Roman Stöllinger (TU Delft), and UNIDO’s Michele Delera and Alejandro Lavopa, who explored alternative metrics to reflect industrial robustness, inspired by UNIDO’s work on their flagship publication – the Industrial Development Report 2026.

The second session, chaired by Nicola Cantore, turned to the complexities of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) data. While the GII currently measures FDI net inflows, the workshop explored distinguishing "productive" investment from financial flows. Bruno Casella (UNCTAD) presented methodologies to identify and correct from "phantom" investments, while Jeff Slee (WIPO) and Glenn Barklie (Financial Times - fDi Markets) discussed leveraging granular, project-level announcements data to track the sectoral composition of investments. Academic contributions from Carlo Pietrobelli (Roma Tre University/UNU-MERIT) and Dea Tusha (University of Groningen) highlighted the importance of using firm-level data to understand the sophistication and spillover contribution of domestic enterprises.

Building on these exchanges, the GII iLens Data Lab will continue its work to identify robust, internationally comparable approaches that can help track industrialization, diversification and investment dynamics in ways that are meaningful for innovation performance and policy.

More information on the 2025 Global Innovation Index

Source: https://www.wipo.int/en/web/global-innovation-index/w/news/2026/fifth-wipo-gii-ilens-innovation-data-lab-workshop