the-most-innovative-universities-infopost2The Reuters agency has prepared and presented the ranking of 100 Most Innovative Universities in the World, a list that aims to reflect which are the academic institutions that do the most for the advancement of science, the development of new technologies and the stimulation of the economy. Based on empirical data from patent filings and citations from research papers, the ranking is filled, as one might expect, by US universities (46 out of 100), with three usual suspects – Stanford, MIT and Harvard – in the top 3.

The highest ranked non-US university (#6) is South Korea’s Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology or KAIST, modeled after North American engineering schools. In total there are eight Korean institutions on the list, surpassed by one by the Japanese, the second most represented country. The first European university on the list (#9) is the Belgian KU Leuven, the Flemish heir to the Catholic University of Louvain, with old roots but with a modern mission based on exhaustive scientific research. Among European countries, France is the most present on the list with 8 institutions, followed by Germany with seven, the United Kingdom with five, Switzerland and Belgium with three, Denmark with two, and the Netherlands with one. Israel (3), China (2), Canada (2) and Singapore (1) are also represented.

Unfortunately there is no representation from the Basque Country or from the Spanish university system on the list, although there was representation from the state in the 100 Most Innovative Universities in Europe previously featured by Reuters. I especially highlight the University of Barcelona (#65), with five spin- promoted offs and 96 registered patents in the 2014-2015 academic year, followed by the also Catalan Politécnica de Catalunya (#85) and the Autónoma de Barcelona (#86). Then come the Polytechnic of Valencia (#88), the University of Santiago de Compostela (#93), the University of Valencia (#95), the University of Seville (#96), the Polytechnic of Madrid (#97), the Complutense de Madrid (#99) and the University of Granada (#100).