Big swing in where European innovation happens as UK-based universities lose out in third annual Reuters Top 100: Europe's Most Innovative Universities ranking

UK-based universities drop a cumulative 35 spots as German and Swiss universities make gains.

LONDON, April 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Political uncertainty may be causing a big swing in where European innovation happens. That's the conclusion of the third annual Reuters ranking of Europe's Most Innovative Universities, a list that identifies and ranks the educational institutions doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies, and help drive the global economy.

The trend is most clear in the sum of changes in rank for each country's institutions: the 23 German universities on this year's list rose 23 spots, more than any other country. Switzerland was second, with five universities up a total of eight spots. In contrast, the list's 21 UK-based universities dropped a cumulative 35 spots.

The introduction to the ranking concludes that while the United Kingdom's "Brexit" from the European Union is almost a year away, Europe's scientific community may already be leaving the UK in favour of research institutions on the continent. A February 2018 study published by the UK-based Centre for Global Higher Education reports that many German academics view Brexit as an "advantage," and hope to use it to attract UK researchers to German universities. In turn, UK academics report that their own postdoctoral researchers aren't seeking positions in the UK and are looking at the EU or United States instead.

According to the ranking, as Brexit unfolds the situation could get worse: A November 2017 study performed by the School of International Futures for the UK's Royal Society describes a possible post-secession United Kingdom where universities compete for a shrinking pool of skilled workers, projects that used to receive EU funding wither, researchers receive fewer invites to join consortia and attend conferences, and overseas collaboration is limited. Similarly, EU-based businesses that fund research at universities may prefer to keep their investments within the region in order to avoid the tax and regulatory headaches of working with post-Brexit UK institutions.

The most innovative university in Europe, for the third year running, is Belgium's KU Leuven. A Dutch-speaking school based in Belgium's Flanders region, KU Leuven was founded in 1425 by Pope Martin V and continually produces a high volume of influential inventions.

Patents filed by KU scientists are frequently cited by other researchers in academia and in private industry. That's one of the key criteria in the Reuters ranking, which was compiled in partnership with Clarivate Analytics, a global data company providing trusted insights and analytics, and based on empirical data including patent filings from Derwent Innovation and research paper citations from the Web of Science.

Overall, the most elite ranks of Europe's Most Innovative Universities held steady from last year. The UK's Imperial College London and University of Cambridge hold onto their respective second and third spots for the third straight year.

Other leading institutions simply traded a few spaces, like the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (up one at four), University of Erlangen Nuremberg (up one at five), and the Technical University of Munich (down two at six).

For more on the Reuters Top 100: Europe's Most Innovative Universities, including a detailed methodology and profiles of the universities, visit www.reuters.com/innovative-universities-europe-2018.

 

The Reuters Top 100: The Most Innovative European Universities
Rank	Institution	Country
1	KU Leuven	Belgium
2	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
4	Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne	Switzerland
5	University of Erlangen Nuremberg	Germany
6	Technical University of Munich	Germany
7	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
8	University of Munich	Germany
9	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark
10	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich	Switzerland
11	University College London	United Kingdom
12	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
13	University of Zurich	Switzerland
14	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
15	University of Basel	Switzerland
16	University of Montpellier	France
17	Leiden University	Netherlands
18	Pierre & Marie Curie University - Paris 6	France
19	University of Paris Descartes - Paris 5	France
20	Ruprecht Karl University Heidelberg	Germany
21	Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz	Germany
22	Free University of Berlin	Germany
23	Eindhoven University of Technology	Netherlands
24	University of Freiburg	Germany
25	University of Paris Sud - Paris 11	France
26	Charité Medical University of Berlin	Germany
27	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
28	Grenoble Alpes University	France
29	Dresden University of Technology	Germany
30	University of Bordeaux	France
31	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	Germany
32	University of Oslo	Norway
33	Ghent University	Belgium
34	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
35	University of Claude Bernard - Lyon 1	France
36	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
37	Queen Mary University London	United Kingdom
38	King's College London	United Kingdom
39	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
40	RWTH Aachen University	Germany
41	University of Strasbourg	France
42	Free University of Brussels	Belgium
43	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
44	Polytechnic University of Milan	Italy
45	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
46	Grenoble Institute of Technology	France
47	Vrije University of Brussels	Belgium
48	Utrecht University	Netherlands
49	Ecole Polytechnique	France
50	Goethe University Frankfurt	Germany
51	University of Paris Diderot - Paris 7	France
52	University of Munster	Germany
53	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
54	Catholic University of Louvain	Belgium
55	Hannover Medical School	Germany
56	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
57	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
58	University of Dundee	United Kingdom
59	University of Aix-Marseille	France
60	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
61	Saarland University	Germany
62	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
63	Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen	Germany
64	Vienna University of Technology	Austria
65	Trinity College Dublin	Ireland
66	University of Milan	Italy
67	University of Paul Sabatier - Toulouse III	France
68	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
69	University of Barcelona	Spain
70	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
71	University of Stuttgart	Germany
72	University of Wurzburg	Germany
73	University of Lorraine	France
74	University of Geneva	Switzerland
75	University of Twente	Netherlands
76	University of Lille	France
77	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
78	University of Groningen	Netherlands
79	University of Nantes	France
80	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
81	Sapienza University Rome	Italy
82	University of Rennes 1	France
83	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
84	Aarhus University	Denmark
85	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
86	University of Liege	Belgium
87	Polytechnic University of Catalonia	Spain
88	Friedrich Schiller University of Jena	Germany
89	University College Cork	Ireland
90	Jagiellonian University	Poland
91	Aalto University	Finland
92	University of Bonn	Germany
93	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
94	Maastricht University	Netherlands
95	Darmstadt University of Technology	Germany
96	University of Antwerp	Belgium
97	University of Nice Sophia Antipolis	France
98	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
99	Polytechnical University of Valencia	Spain
100	University of Valencia	Spain

 

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Clarivate AnalyticsClarivate Analytics is the 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.

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