- German universities account for more participants than any other country, closely followed by UK-based universities and France Despite political unease across the continent, the top ranks of Europe's most innovative universities remain remarkably steady, according to fourth annual Reuters Top 100: Europe's Most Innovative Universities ranking. All 100 of the institutions included in Reuters Top 100 produce original research, create useful technology and stimulate the global economy, but for the fourth consecutive year, KU Leuven tops the list. The Dutch-speaking school based in Belgium's Flanders region is 594 years old and boasts a tradition of influential innovation. Patents filed by KU scientists are frequently cited by other researchers in their own patent filings. That's one of the key criteria in Reuters' rankings, which were compiled in partnership with Clarivate Analytics. The Reuters Top 100 is based on proprietary analysis of numerous indicators including patent filings and research paper citations. To compile its ranking of Europe's most innovative universities, Clarivate Analytics identified more than 600 global organisations that publish the most academic research. Then they evaluated each candidate on 10 different metrics, focusing in particular on patent filings and research paper citations, and ranked universities within the region based on their performance. Only one university in the top 100 is entirely new to the list this year: The Norwegian University of Science & Technology, or NTSU (No. 56). Germany's University of Erlangen Nuremberg (No. 2) climbs three spots to the runner-up position, bumping Imperial College London (No. 3), the University of Cambridge (No. 4), and Switzerland's EPFL (No. 5) each down one rung on the ladder. The UK's University College London (No. 6, up five) is one of two new entrants to the top 10, along with the University of Zurich (No. 9, up four). The Technical University of Munich (No. 7, down one), University of Manchester (No. 8, down one) and ETH Zurich (No. 10, no change) complete the top 10. German universities account for more entrants than any other country, with 23 institutions in the top 100, the same as last year; the United Kingdom has 21 schools, also no change; France is third with 18 universities, followed by the Netherlands with nine, Belgium with seven, Spain and Switzerland each with five, Italy with four, Denmark with three, Norway with two, and Austria and Ireland with one. Amid the uncertainty caused by a still-pending Brexit, British institutions show a general performance decline among the Top 100, whilst the positions of German and Dutch universities on the list are, on average rising. While Reuters' ranking includes some historical data that predates the 2016 European Union referendum, experts suggest these trends could reflect the first wave of researchers leaving the UK in favor of more stable institutions on the continent. For more on the Reuters Top 100: Europe's Most Innovative Universities, including a detailed methodology and profiles of the universities, visit: here The Reuters Top 100: The Most Innovative European Universities 2019 1 KU Leuven Belgium 2 University of Erlangen Nuremberg Germany 3 Imperial College London United Kingdom 4 University of Cambridge United Kingdom 5 EPFL - Swiss Federal lnstitute of Technology Lausanne Switzerland 6 University College London United Kingdom 7 Technical University of Munich Germany 8 University of Manchester United Kingdom 9 University of Zurich Switzerland 10 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich Switzerland 11 Ruprecht Karl University Heidelberg Germany 12 University of Oxford United Kingdom 13 Technical University of Denmark Denmark 14 Leiden University Netherlands 15 University of Paris Sud - Paris 11 France 16 Delft University of Technology Netherlands 17 University of Montpellier France 18 University of Paris Descartes France 19 University of Basel Switzerland 20 University of Munich Germany 21 Kings College London United Kingdom 22 Sorbonne University France 23 Free University of Berlin Germany 24 University of Bordeaux France 25 Utrecht University Netherlands 26 Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz Germany 27 RWTH Aachen University Germany 28 Charité Medical University of Berlin Germany 29 Eindhoven University of Technology Netherlands 30 University of Freiburg Germany 31 Dresden University of Technology Germany 32 Humboldt University of Berlin Germany 33 Grenoble Alpes University France 34 Technical University of Berlin Germany 35 University of Copenhagen Denmark 36 Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands 37 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom 38 Saarland University Germany 39 University of Lille France 40 Free University of Brussels Belgium 41 University of Claude Bernard - Lyon 1 France 42 University of Dundee United Kingdom 43 Catholic University of Louvain Belgium 44 University of Glasgow United Kingdom 45 Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen Germany 46 University of Birmingham United Kingdom 47 Goethe University Frankfurt Germany 48 Ghent University Belgium 49 Queen Mary University London United Kingdom 50 University of Aix-Marseille France 51 University of Oslo Norway 52 University of Munster Germany 53 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Germany 54 University of Groningen Netherlands 55 Ecole Polytechnique France 56 Norwegian University of Science & Technology Norway 57 University of Stuttgart Germany 58 University of Amsterdam Netherlands 59 Vrije University of Brussels Belgium 60 University of Strasbourg France 61 University of Paris Diderot France 62 Grenoble Institute of Technology France 63 University of Leeds United Kingdom 64 University of Geneva Switzerland 65 University of Wurzburg Germany 66 University of Nantes France 67 University of Southampton United Kingdom 68 Polytechnic University of Milan Italy 69 Hannover Medical School Germany 70 Trinity College Dublin Ireland 71 University of Bristol United Kingdom 72 University of Paul Sabatier - Toulouse III France 73 Cardiff University United Kingdom 74 Vienna University of Technology Austria 75 University of Barcelona Spain 76 University of Leicester United Kingdom 77 University of Milan Italy 78 Aarhus University Denmark 79 University of Lorraine France 80 Newcastle University United Kingdom 81 Polytechnic University of Catalonia Spain 82 University of St Andrews United Kingdom 83 University of Bonn Germany 84 University of Rennes 1 France 85 University of Sheffield United Kingdom 86 Friedrich Schiller University of Jena Germany 87 University of Nottingham United Kingdom 88 University of Twente Netherlands 89 Maastricht University Netherlands 90 Jagiellonian University Poland 91 University of Liege Belgium 92 University of Valencia Spain 93 University of Antwerp Belgium 94 University of Padua Italy 95 Polytechnical University of Valencia Spain 96 University of Nice Sophia Antipolis France 97 Darmstadt University of Technology Germany 98 Sapienza University Rome Italy 99 University of Surrey United Kingdom 100 Autonomous University of Barcelona Spain Notes to Editors To compile the ranking of Europe's most innovative universities, Clarivate Analytics identified Europe-based institutions that each produced a substantial body of research, as determined by the number of papers indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection between 2012 and 2017. The next step was to ascertain the extent to which this output was successfully turned to patents by consulting two additional Clarivate resources: Derwent World Patents Index and Derwent Innovations Index. Analysts also consulted “Patent Citations,“ gauging the rate at which a university's patents are cited by other patents. These measures provide an indicator of influence in ongoing research and development. Along with the assessment of citations in other patents, the analysis included gauging how frequently an average journal article from an institution is cited by patents. This metric provides a clear link between a university's basic research and its influence in applied technology. In further scrutiny of the universities' published papers, analysts tallied reports that listed at least one author from a commercial or industrial as an indicator of immediate ties to the marketplace. Reuters Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world's largest international multimedia news provider reaching billions of people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktops, the world's media organizations and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Follow news about Reuters at @ReutersPR. Clarivate Analytics is a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. Building on a heritage going back more than a century and a half, we have built some of the most trusted brands across the innovation lifecycle, including Web of Science, Cortellis, Derwent, CompuMark, MarkMonitor and Techstreet. Today, Clarivate Analytics is a new and independent company on a bold entrepreneurial mission to help our clients radically reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing innovations. For more information, please visit clarivate.com. 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 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 a comprehensive patent solution offering editorially enhanced, authoritative and accurate patent data covering more than 40 patent-issuing authorities. ? LONDON – 30 April 2019 – Despite political unease across the continent, the top ranks of Europe's most innovative universities remain remarkably steady, according to fourth annual Reuters Top 100: Europe's Most Innovative Universities ranking. Media Contact: Joel.ivory-harte@thomsonreuters.com [Reuters PR Blog Post]
