Barcelona, recognized as one of the world’s top 50 innovation clusters in 2025

Barcelona has been ranked among the 50 leading innovation clusters worldwide in the Innovation Cluster Ranking 2025, consolidating its position as one of Europe’s key hubs for research, technology, and entrepreneurship.

The ranking, part of the Global Innovation Index, identifies areas with the highest concentration of innovation activity, based on patent applications, scientific publications, and venture capital investment. Out of two Spanish clusters included in the global top 100, Barcelona is the highest ranked, standing out for both the volume and intensity of its innovation output.

Between 2020 and 2024, Barcelona registered 435 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications, 6,016 scientific publications, and 259 venture capital deals per one million inhabitants. These achievements place Barcelona as the 45th largest innovation cluster worldwide and 62nd in terms of intensity relative to its population density.

Some of the city’s key innovation drivers include:

• Top patent applicant: Hewlett-Packard (HP), with 575 patents (26 % of the cluster’s total), reflecting the company’s strong presence in Catalonia. HP operates a major innovation center for industrial 3D printing in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona), alongside a Customer Welcome Center.
• Top publishing organization: The University of Barcelona, contributing 4,573 articles (15 % of total publications).
• Collaborative innovation: 23 % of Barcelona’s PCT patent applications involve co-inventors from other regions, with Madrid, San Francisco–San Jose, and Portland as top collaborators. Similarly, 69 % of scientific publications are co-authored with other institutions, particularly from Madrid, London, and Paris.

Barcelona’s innovation is especially strong in the fields of pharma (11 %), textile and paper machinery (11 %), and medical technology (9 %) for patents, while leading research areas include clinical medicine (12 %), technology (11 %), and earth sciences (1 0%).

Innovation Cluster Ranking

The Innovation Cluster Ranking, developed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), uses advanced geocoding methods to map the addresses of inventors, authors, and venture capitalists worldwide, achieving a near 100 % accuracy rate. The ranking highlights global hotspots where science, technology, and investment converge to drive competitiveness and growth.

Barcelona’s inclusion in the world’s top 50 innovation clusters reflects the city’s dynamic ecosystem, where universities, research centers, startups, and global companies collaborate to shape the industries of the future.