Reuters has released its fourth annual ranking of the world’s most innovative universities, compiled in partnership with Clarivate Analytics. The fourth annual list is based on empirical data including patent filings from Derwent Innovation and research paper citations from the Web of Science to identify the educational institutions most successful in advancing science, inventing new technologies, and powering new markets and industries.
North American universities continue to dominate the Reuters' ranking with 48 universities featuring in the top 100 - 46 in the USA and two from Canada. Once again, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University take the top three spots. Contributing to Stanford's solid foothold at number one is a steady stream of patents and research which are frequently cited by other academics and industrial firms around the world. Recent Stanford research highlights include several developments in the field of artificial intelligence, including a next generation of camera systems to guide self-driving cars and simulators that can predict potential drug interactions before new pharmaceuticals are ever tested on humans.
European universities take 27 places on the list, the highest ranked of which is Belgium's KU Leuven ranked #7, followed by Imperial College London (#8). Asia follows closely, with 23 universities, headed by Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), at #11 and Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH) at #13.
Germany and Japan are tied for second best-performing country, with nine universities each. South Korea has eight universities on the list; China, France and the United Kingdom each have 5; Switzerland has 3; Belgium, Canada, Israel and the Netherlands have 2, and Denmark and Singapore each have 1. Regionally, Asia has 23 institutions on the list, the Middle East has two. There are no universities in the top 100 located in Africa, South America or Oceania.
The University of Manchester, UK showed the biggest improvement in rank surging 27 places in comparison to its showing in 2017. One explanation for this rapid rise is the University's world-leading research on graphene. The University is home to the UK's National Graphene Institute, as well as graphene pioneers and 2010 Nobel Prize recipients in Physics Sir Andre Geim and Sir Konstantin Novoselov. Patents relating to graphene account for about a quarter of all filings from the University over the six-year period surveyed (2011 - 2016).
Clarivate Analytics' highly curated datasets provide the most trusted and unique data to make these rankings possible. These information and research analytics tools are relied upon by more than 20 million users and have been selected by the world's most influential ranking organisations such as the Academic Ranking of the World Universities (also known as Shanghai Rankings), CWTS Leiden Ranking, U.S. News Global University Rankings, U-Multirank European Ranking, University Ranking by Academic Performance – URAP (Turkey), I-UGR Rankings (Spain), National Taiwan University Rankings, among many others.
Web of Science is the largest publisher-neutral citation index, powering global discovery and citation analytics across the sciences, social sciences and art & humanities. With more than 1.4 billion cited references going back to 1900 and millions of users per day-from top government and academic institutions and research-intensive corporations-the Web of Science citation network serves as the foundation for the Journal Impact Factor, InCites, and other powerful and trusted citation-impact metrics. Clarivate Analytics attaches special significance to the quality of data indexed in the Web of Science.
Derwent Innovation, the flagship patent research platform from Clarivate Analytics, provides access to the most trusted global patent data and scientific literature with powerful capabilities to perform analysis and collaborate efficiently. Powered by the Derwent World Patents Index, Derwent Innovation provides users with the most comprehensive patent solution offering editorially enhanced, authoritative and accurate patent data covering more than 50 patent-issuing authorities.
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