Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University top the inaugural Reuters Top 100 ranking of the world’s most innovative universities. The Reuters Top 100 ranking aims to identify which institutions contribute the most to science and technology, and have the greatest impact on the global economy. The ranking uses proprietary data and analysis tools from the Intellectual Property & Science division of Thomson Reuters to examine a series of patent and research-related metrics, and get to the essence of what it means to be truly innovative.
How can potential partners, investors, faculty and students know if an institution is really transforming science and technology and affecting the global economy? To answer that question, Reuters set out to find and rank the world’s top 100 innovative universities, building a methodology that employs 10 different metrics. The criteria focused on academic papers, which indicate basic research performed at a university; and patent filings, which point to an institution’s interest in protecting and commercializing its discoveries.
Stanford edged out other tech giants and Ivy League stalwarts by scoring consistently well across each of the criteria with especially high marks when it came to articles and patents that were frequently cited by researchers elsewhere in the academic and corporate worlds.
Other key findings of the Reuters Top 100 include the strong performance of institutions outside the United States. Half of Reuters Top 100 Innovative Universities are located in Canada, Europe or Asia; Japan is home to nine of the Reuters Top 100 innovative universities – more than other country except the US. South Korea also performed well on the list: the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, or KAIST, is the only non-US school to place in the top ten.
The most innovative university in Europe, Imperial College London, ranked No. 11 overall. Founded in 1907, it's relatively young compared to the continent's second and third-place universities, Belgium's KU Leuven (No. 16, founded in 1425) and England's University of Cambridge (No. 25, established in 1209). Elsewhere in Europe, Switzerland stands out: With three schools on the list and a population of just over 8 million people, it has more top 100 innovative universities per capita than any other country in the world.
For more on the Reuters Top 100, including a detailed methodology and profiles of the universities, interested entities may visit http://www.reuters.com/most-innovative-universities.
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