From an innovation perspective, collaboration between the different actors in a national innovation system (NIS) is imperative. Our concern is whether the Triple Helix idea of collaboration between universities, industry and government as conditional for innovation capacities is possible to estimate on the basis of data. The present paper therefore uses the Global Innovation Index 2013 and the Global Competitiveness Index 2013 for that purpose. The included variables relate to the characteristics of universities, industries, government