Lisbon, March 3, 2026 (Lusa) - Portugal is the European country with the highest percentage of women in inventor teams, according to an international study that warns, however, of the "brain drain" of female talent and consequent under-representation in patented discoveries and start-ups.
The report published on Tuesday by the European Patent Organisation (EPO) shows that there are more and more female inventors applying for patents, but they remain a minority: in Portugal, only 30 out of every 100 inventors are women (29.3%). In Europe, the average drops to 13.8%.
Portugal ranks first, followed by Spain, in a list of 22 countries, with Germany, Hungary and Austria appearing in last place, with rates of around 10%, according to the report "Promoting women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) - A data-driven assessment of gender disparity in the European innovation ecosystem".
In recent decades, the presence of women in inventive teams has grown, but "very slowly", argues Cristina Margarido, patent examiner at the EPO.
The study warns of a "brain drain", as more and more women with degrees in STEM fields are disappearing as they advance in their careers. Among female PhD holders, few researchers register patents or create technology companies (start-ups).
"This pattern suggests that women face increasingly pronounced barriers as they advance in STEM-related and technology-driven careers," says OEP President António Campinos.
For António Campinos, "Europe cannot afford to leave talent on the sidelines," not least because there is untapped potential for innovation.
This idea is corroborated by Cristina Margarido, who was surprised by the high percentage of exclusively male-led start-ups: "We have many mixed groups doing research and development, but then the founders of technology companies are almost all men."
The study says that only one in ten founders is female. Here too, Portugal and Spain stand out positively: in Spain, 19.2% of start-ups have women among their founders, and in Portugal the figure is 15.7%.
In Europe, only 13.5% of start-ups with patents have at least one female founder.
All the others - more than 85% - are composed only of men.
Cristina Margarido says that women's inventive potential is comparable to that of men, but their patents have far fewer claims and fewer citations.
Award-winning scientists interviewed for the study said that "as they move up, they have no one to encourage or promote them," she said.
The report also points to barriers when starting a business. The team that produced the report heard stories from women who said that when they were looking for funding, they were "often the only woman in the room."
"The nine men there are more likely to give financial support to a start-up represented by men with whom they have more in common," explained Cristina Margarido.
In addition, in some areas, such as biomedicine, women develop studies that are more likely to solve problems related to women, while men's patents tend to focus on male problems.
For this reason, the OEP spokesperson pointed out that an all-male team may develop a product with a gender bias because there are problems that are invisible to them and therefore they do not solve them, because for them they do not exist.
One case that became charismatic was that of the dummies used for car testing. Initially, only male models were used until it was realised that women had many more problems in car accidents because no tests had been carried out with female models.
The figures show that the situation in Europe has been changing, with more and more women among scientists and start-up founders.
Portuguese scientist Elvira Fortunato told Lusa that she has noticed this evolution in university corridors and laboratories, a change now reflected in the figures in the report.
"The percentage of European patent applications naming at least one woman as inventor has increased from less than 4% around 1980 to 21.6% in 2019 and 24.1% in 2022."
Currently, women are much more present in research in the areas of pharmaceuticals (34.9%), biotechnology (34.2%) and food chemistry (32.3%).
On the other hand, in the areas of machine tools (5.7%), basic communication processes (5.5%) and mechanical elements (4.9%), their presence remains almost negligible, according to the study.
SIM/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
