Here's the full report Brit:

http://www.globalinnovationindex.org/gii/

The top ten for 2011 were:

Switzerland Sweden Singapore Hong Kong (SAR), China Finland, Denmark United States of America Canada Netherlands United Kingdom

While there is plenty of movement within the top 20 year-to-year, rarely does a new country break into the top 20.  Qatar was 35th last year, although interestingly higher at 24 the year before.

The report measures a variety of factors--new technologies, sustainability, public expenditure on education, press freedom, market sophistication, etc.  

This link shows the criteria, which is extensive, and you can look at a breakdown of the scores

http://www.globalinnovationindex.org/gii/main/analysis/headtoheadint.cfm

For example, Qatar scored well on political stability, GDP growth rate, new businesses, taxes, and pupil-teacher ration; it score poorly not surprisingly on personal freedoms, legal rights, export of services, production of scientific journal articles, public expenditure per pupil (a product of expats paying for private education for children), carbon footprint.

I did a comparison between Qatar and Iceland, which was quite interesting.

I found it fascinating because the report is extremely credible and gives an interesting breakdown of any nation, showing strengths and weaknesses.