Top 100 most innovative universities in Europe

The third annual ranking by Reuters entitled Reuters Top 100: Europe's Most Innovative Universities, created in collaboration with Clarivate Analytics, a global data company, highlighted major changes in where innovations originate in Europe. The ranking identifies and classifies educational institutions most committed to the development of science, discovering new technologies, and developing the global economy.

Universities in the UK have dropped in this ranking while German and Swiss universities have risen.

The trend is the most obvious when we take a look at the sum of changes in the locations of institutions in each country: 23 German universities on this year's list have risen by 23 points, more than any other country. Switzerland was second, with five universities and a total increase of eight points. By contrast, 21 UK universities on the list fell by cumulative 35 points.

What will come after Brexit?

The introduction to the Reuters Top 100 ranking concludes that, while the UK's secession from the European Union is still almost a year away, the European scientific community has started leaving the UK for the benefit of other research institutions on the continent.

A February 2018 study, published by the British Center for Global Higher Education, states that many German academics consider Brexit an advantage in this regard and hope to use it to attract British scientists. On the other hand, British academics report that their own postdoctoral researchers are not looking for jobs in the UK, but in the EU or the United States.

According to the ranking, the situation could be worsening. After Brexit, UK universities will start competing for a shrinking group of skilled workers and projects funded by the EU. Researchers may receive fewer invitations to join consortia and participate in conferences, and foreign co-operation will be limited.

Similarly, businesses in the EU that fund research at universities want to keep their investments in the EU to avoid tax and regulatory difficulties caused by cooperation with British institutions after Brexit.

The most innovative universities

The Belgian KU Leuven has been the most innovative university in Europe for the third year running. The Dutch-speaking university is located in the Belgian region of Flanders, where it was founded by Pope Martin V in 1425. It constantly generates a large volume of influential inventions.

Patents filed by scientists at the Catholic University of Leuven are often quoted by other researchers in the academic and private sectors. This is one of the key criteria to be placed in the Reuters ranking.

Overall, the top positions of Europe's most innovative universities have remained similar to the last year. The Imperial College London and University of Cambridge have ranked second and third for the third consecutive year as well.

Other leading institutions have simply exchanged positions such as the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (one place up to fourth), the University of Erlangen Nuremberg (one place up to fifth), and the Technical University of Munich (two places down to sixth).

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	Holland
13	University of Zurich	Switzerland
14	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
15	University of Basel	Switzerland
16	University of Montpellier	France
17	Leiden University	Holland
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	Holland
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	Holland
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	Holland
57	University of Amsterdam	Holland
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 MilanItaly	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	Holland
76	University of Lille 1	France
77	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
78	University of Groningen	Holland
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	Holland
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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