Less than one in seven inventors in Europe are women

A first time study by the European  Patent Office (EPO) shows that only 13,2% of all European inventors are women. The EPO has done research to all patent applications from 1978 to 2019. Despite a visible increase (only 2% in the late 1970s to 13.2% in 2019), the EPO speaks of a strong gender gap. With 15.8%, Belgium scores higher than the European average. The EU does better than Japan with 9.5%, but worse than the US with 15%. Figures for Flanders are not available, but a new VARIO advisory process will provide more information on this.

Publicatie European Patent Office
Artikel Science Business
VARIO-adviestrajecten