The Nature Index 2021 Young Universities, published in Nature, shows that while universities with the highest increases in high-quality research output in this year’s supplement have shared approaches to purpose, recruitment and researcher independence, they are following different strategies in their respective drives to growth.
For the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, which is among the fastest rising young universities for physical sciences and chemistry in the Nature Index, this has meant developing a strong framework around research centres with a focus on growing premium research productivity. For another, the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, India, scientific advancement in select areas and a carefully measured approach to recruitment has proven effective.
Although different strategic approaches are serving young universities well, it is also evident that they share common practices, such as not recruiting faculty members just based on their speciality or seniority within the field, and a willingness to allow researchers the independence to run their own labs. This approach has been employed by many of the young Asian universities that continue to feature heavily in the Young Universities Index.
23 of the Top 50 institutions by article share in 2020 come from China, with five of those making up the all Asian Top 10. Adding to the strong performance of Asian universities is South Korea with four institutions in the Top 50, three of which are listed in the Top 10, and India with five young universities listed amongst the Top 50 institutions. Outside of Asia, Australian universities also performed well with five young universities ranked in the Top 50. The United States, Austria and Germany all feature twice.
The Nature Index is a database of author affiliations and institutional relationships. The index tracks contributions to research articles published in 82 high-quality natural science journals, chosen by an independent group of researchers.
The Nature Index provides absolute and fractional counts of article publications at the institutional and national level and, as such, is an indicator of global high-quality research output and collaboration. Data in the Nature Index are updated regularly, with the most recent 12 months made available under a Creative Commons license at natureindex.com. The database is compiled by Springer Nature. The full Nature Index Young Universities supplement can be found here.
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