KU Leuven 7th most innovative university in the world

18 Oct 2018 | Network Updates | Update from KU Leuven
These updates are republished press releases and communications from members of the Science|Business Network
Press release

Our university is the highest-ranked non-US institution on the Reuters list of the world's most innovative universities, released today. KU Leuven proudly takes the seventh place. Stanford University, MIT and Harvard are ranked first, second and third, respectively.

n institution is striving towards innovative excellence to the utmost of its abilities? Every year, Reuters releases a list that serves two purposes: it identifies and ranks the educational institutions which are doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies and power new markets and industries. Simply put: they find and rank the world's top 100 innovative universities. 

The criteria focused on academic papers, which indicate basic research performed at a university. Those were then cross-referenced with patent filings, which point to an institution’s interest in protecting and commercializing its discoveries. Other criteria used were patent equivalents, citing patents and citing articles (up to March 2018).

Rector Luc Sels expressed his pride. "Not only is this a welcome reminder that our research and innovation policies are very successful, but it also points to the big social and economic impact our university has, not just in Flanders, but worldwide. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our many researchers who, day after day, contribute to this success. Our colleagues from KU Leuven Research & Development also deserve to be mentioned here. Without a strong technology transfer office, none of this would've been possible in the first place." 

Reuters top 10: The world's most innovative universities

  1. Stanford University (VS)
  2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT (VS)
  3. Harvard University (VS)
  4. University of Pennsylvania (VS)
  5. University of Washington (VS)
  6. University of Texas System (VS)
  7. KU Leuven (Belgium)
  8. Imperial College London (UK)
  9. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (VS)
  10. Vanderbilt University (VS)

Read more and see the full ranking

This release was first published 11 October 2018 by KU Leuven. 

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