The Slovak Republic is one of Europe’s most dynamic economies. Yet, along with other post-communist countries, the country still faces major challenges in the field of innovation and in moving towards a knowledge-based economy. Business and public R&D remain well below the OECD average. Although gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) has grown steadily (at an annual rate of 16.3% over the period 2009 2014), investment in R&D as a share of GDP is far below OECD norms (table 1). Publicly financed R&D reached 0.39% of GDP in 2014, which is about 60% of the average in OECD economies. Improvements in governance and reforms to the public research sector have continued in recent years. The current major STI policy priorities are R&D and business innovation, enhancing the transfer and impact of public research, and improving policy governance.