The Jagiellonian University is still the only university from Poland and Central-Eastern Europe to be featured in the Most Innovative Universities ranking. The ranking, comprising 100 most innovative European higher education institutions, was prepared by Thomson Reuters based on an analysis of research papers and patent applications in 2010–2015.
The publication of the ranking was preceded by a thorough and detailed analysis of the higher education institutions in respect to several factors regarding innovation. These factors included the number of patents granted by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, patent application to grant ratio, percentage of international patents (applying for a patent in several countries, especially in the USA or Japan, shows high potential for implementation), the overall number of citations related to patents, and patents’ influence on further development of research. Other important factors were the total number of papers on inventions published in journals as well as research and development papers written in collaboration with business and industry sectors.
The highest-ranked institution, University of Leuven (Belgium), is almost 600 years old. Its expenditure on research in 2015 amounted to 454 million euro, and it boasts 586 patents. Two subsequent positions were taken by the British Imperial College and University of Cambridge. The first ten positions on the list are occupied by higher education institutions from Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and France.
The Jagiellonian University, which moved up by two spots in comparison to last year’s edition, is now classified as number 90. It is the only Central-Eastern European university to be included in the ranking.
The ranking can be viewed at its official website.
