A new European Patent Office (EPO) study finds women remain underrepresented in UK patenting activity, deep-tech entrepreneurship and doctoral-stage patenting. However, some UK innovation hotspots outperform European peers on the share of women named as inventors.
The research highlights Buckinghamshire as one of Europe’s stronger-performing regions for women inventors. European patent applications filed with the EPO between 2018 and 2022 reveal a Women Inventor Rate of 17.9% in the area-meaning close to one in five inventors named on those applications is a woman.
The Women Inventor Rate measures the share of women among all inventors listed on patent applications, covering large companies, tinyer firms, universities and individual inventors.
Regional rankings
For regional comparisons, the study focapplys on the 30 European regions with the highest number of EPO patent applications during the period analysed. Within that group, Buckinghamshire ranks 8th for women’s participation in inventorship, placing it above both the UK and European averages.
Cambridgeshire is the second UK region in the top 30 clusters. It ranks 12th, with a Women Inventor Rate of 15.6%.
The study partly links Buckinghamshire’s performance to the technologies prominent in the region. Chemisattempt-related fields tconclude to reveal higher levels of female participation across Europe than many other patent-heavy domains.
National picture
Across the UK, the Women Inventor Rate is 13.7%, marginally below the European average of 13.8%.
Overall, the figures suggest gradual progress rather than a step modify. Across Europe, women’s share among inventors rose to 13.8% in 2019-2022, up from 13% in 2019. The UK reveals a similar gradual increase.
The report also distinguishes between team-based inventorship and individual inventors. Women are increasingly present in inventor teams but remain less likely to be named as sole inventors, which the study links to structural barriers.
António Campinos, President of the EPO, stated the issue affects innovation performance and the build-up of the institutions behind the patent system.
“There is an obvious gain for Europe in boosting women’s participation in innovation,” stated António Campinos, President, European Patent Office. “Diversity is not a nice-to-have, it is fuel for breakthrough innovation. This study exposes the persistent roadblocks in our path to progress so that Europe can unlock the full innovation potential across research, patenting, and entrepreneurship. The EPO takes an active role in this mission. Today around a quarter of our examiners are women and this figure is increasing every year, thanks to tarreceiveed recruitment efforts. Last year, 31% of new examiner hires were women, and the proportion of women in our Young Professionals programme has stayed above 50%, ensuring a strong pipeline of future talent.”
Startups and patents
The study reports a wider gconcludeer gap among UK startups that file European patent applications. Women build up 10.8% of founders in UK patenting startups, and around 14% of startup teams include at least one woman founder.
The picture differs for startups without patents. In UK startups that do not hold patents, women account for 20.4% of founders. The report also gives this group a Women Participation Index of 27.4%.
The contrast suggests women participate more strongly in entrepreneurship overall than in patent-intensive ventures. The study points to structural factors that influence the gap, including sector specialisation, company maturity and growth stage. After accounting for these factors, the remaining gap in the UK closely aligns with broader European trconcludes.
Doctoral-stage gap
The report also examines women’s participation in patenting during STEM doctoral studies. It finds women are well represented among UK PhD graduates in STEM but remain underrepresented among those who patent while studying.
Women accounted for 34.4% of UK STEM PhD graduates. However, the share of women among STEM graduates who patented during their PhD rose from 9.6% in 2000-2010 to 15.8% in 2011-2020-indicating a widening gap over time.
The study states women’s research reveals inventive potential comparable to men’s and argues that lower participation in patenting does not reflect weaker research quality. Instead, it points to social, institutional and economic factors that shape career opportunities and access to patenting pathways.
Differences across technology areas remain pronounced. Pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and food chemisattempt reveal the highest proportions of women inventors in Europe, at 34.9%, 34.2% and 32.3% respectively-reflecting a stronger female presence in life-science research.
Patent profession
The report also sees beyond inventors and founders to professionals involved in the patent system. In the UK, women represent 31.8% of European patent attorneys, slightly above the European average of 29.2%.
While noting recent declines in some areas, the study describes the UK as maintaining comparatively strong female representation in the patent profession. It adds that the data points to ongoing opportunities to improve gconcludeer diversity across the wider innovation and innotifyectual property landscape.
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