OBJECTIVES: At the 2000 Lisbon Summit, the European Council set the quantitative target to increase R&D investment in all EU countries to 3% GDP by 2010. Today, there is growing emphasis on innovation in R&D, particularly in the development of pharmaceuticals, with the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) publishing annual ranking of the 27 EU member states to track and benchmark innovation performance. This work aims to explore the potential relationship between R&D investment and EIS innovation performance. In addition, the impact of national or regional innovation plans/policy will be considered. METHODS: The EIS innovation performance results for 2009 (based on data from 2005) were identified as the primary measure of innovation performance. The EIS includes 7 dimensions to accommodate the diversity of innovation processes and models that occur in varying national contexts. Eurostat data were used to identify the R&D investment in 2005. In order to identify the importance of R&D investment (%GDP) to EIS position, a simple quantitative linear regression was conducted. Supplementary qualitative literature searches were conducted to identify national and regional innovation plans and policies. RESULTS: The simple linear regression revealed a significant (p<0.00005) relationship between R&D investment and position within the EIS innovation performance, with R&D investment explaining 72% of the scoreboard results. However, other dimensions have a noteworthy effect on innovation performance, since although the UK was identified as an innovation leader (along with Denmark, Finland, Germany, and Sweden), the UK ranks only 8th in terms of %GDP R&D investment. In this case, the presence of a national plan for innovation, alongside other factors, has led to high innovative performance. CONCLUSIONS: Although R&D has a significant effect on innovation performance, other dimensions also have a noteworthy effect. For example, the presence of national plans for innovation may aid a country in gaining innovation leader status.