A university's innovation ecosystem goes beyond startups: Are faculty and researchers publishing influential studies, patenting their ideas and commercializing their tech?
That's the idea behind Reuter's Most Innovative Universities ranking. The ranking is based on ten metrics that center on patents (including patent applications, citations and success) and academic papers (including industry article citation impact and percent of industry collaborative articles). And it appears Illinois university researchers are among the most active and influential innovators.
Northwestern is ranked 10th worldwide--Reuters pointed out the university receives more than $600 million annually in research funding. They also pointed to the success of Naurex, a pharmaceutical startup spun out of Northwestern research that sold to Allergan for $560 million, and The Garage, an entrepreneurship hub for students.
Additionally, University of Illinois' system is ranked 22nd and University of Chicago is ranked 47th
Now in its second year of this ranking, Reuters researchers said they found that innovation can be fickle.
"Our 2016 results show that big breakthroughs - even just one highly influential paper or patent - can drive a university way up the list, but when that discovery fades into the past, so does its ranking," Reuters writes. "According to our findings, consistency is key, with truly innovative institutions putting out groundbreaking work year after year."
UChicago jumped up to 47 from 71 last year, as Reuters pointed out in fiscal 2016 the university received 2,494 sponsored research awards totaling $479 million. Though both Northwestern and University of Illinois dipped slightly from last year (Northwestern was ranked 6th and University of Illinois was ranked 21st), they both stayed relatively consistent.
Here's a look at the top innovative universities worldwide. Check out the full rankings here.
- Stanford University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Harvard University
- University of Texas system
- University of Washington system
- KAIST (South Korea)
- University of Michigan system
- University of Pennsylvania
- KU Leuven (Belgium)
- Northwestern University
- Pohang University of Science and Technology (South Korea)
- Imperial College London (United Kingdom)
- University of Wisconsin System
- Duke University
- University of California system
- University of Tokyo (Japan)
- University of Southern California
- Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland)
- University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
- Vanderbilt University
- Osaka University (Japan)
- University of Illinois System
- Johns Hopkins University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Ohio State University
