MUSCAT : Oman has recorded significant progress across several indicators in the Global Innovation Index 2026, reflecting continued improvements in the country’s innovation ecosystem, investment environment and institutional framework.

According to the report, Oman rose from 55th last year to 47th globally in the Innovation Inputs pillar. The Global Innovation Index, issued annually by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), assesses innovation ecosystems using a wide range of indicators.

The latest findings showed that 15 of Oman’s sub-indicators were ranked among the world’s top 40. Oman placed ninth globally in net foreign direct investment flows as a percentage of GDP, 14th in the development of specialised clusters and 16th in electricity production per million people.

Oman also ranked 18th in business policy stability, 20th in ICT access, 22nd in STEM graduates, 24th in entrepreneurship policy and culture, and 26th in university-industry research and development collaboration.

Oman improved in six of the index’s seven main pillars. Institutions emerged as its strongest-performing pillar, ranking 39th globally, supported by stable policies and an effective regulatory environment.

Infrastructure ranked 54th, while market sophistication reached 58th place after improving by 12 positions compared with last year.

The report also highlighted sharp gains in several individual indicators. Oman climbed 32 places in venture capital deals received per billion dollars of GDP at purchasing power parity, and advanced by the same margin in industrial designs by origin per billion dollars of GDP.

The country also moved up 25 places in the share of research talent employed by businesses.

Oman advanced 23 positions to rank 33rd globally in business-funded research and development spending as a proportion of total R&D expenditure.

Its performance in the indicator measuring the top three universities in the QS World University Rankings improved by 16 places. The gain followed Sultan Qaboos University’s rise to 334th globally, alongside the entry of the University of Nizwa and Dhofar University into the world’s top 1,000 universities.

In line with the 2026 report’s focus on deep science entrepreneurship, iLab Marine, emerging from the Research and Innovation Authority’s Student Graduation Projects to Startups programme, and Innotech were highlighted as national examples of transforming scientific research and innovation into commercially viable projects with high added value.

They also marked Oman’s first national presence in the Deep Science Startups Tracker.

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