2016 tables: Institutions - biological sciences

The 2016 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015.

Table criteria

# Institution Share 2015 Count 2015
1 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 176.07 522
2 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 159.15 497
3 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 130.21 396
4 The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK) 71.12 224
5 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 58.49 278
6 The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK) 55.41 162
7 The Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom (UK) 54.47 138
8 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), United Kingdom (UK) 51.91 181
9 King's College London (KCL), United Kingdom (UK) 43.60 192
10 University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK) 33.58 115
11 Wellcome Sanger Institute, United Kingdom (UK) 30.42 177
12 The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom (UK) 27.15 79
13 University of Glasgow, United Kingdom (UK) 26.13 110
14 Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), United Kingdom (UK) 23.90 90
15 Newcastle University, United Kingdom (UK) 23.21 94
16 University of Birmingham (UB), United Kingdom (UK) 21.52 82
17 University of Dundee, United Kingdom (UK) 19.98 76
18 Cardiff University, United Kingdom (UK) 19.33 82
19 University of Exeter, United Kingdom (UK) 18.30 70
20 GlaxoSmithKline plc. (GSK), United Kingdom (UK) 18.01 62
21 University of York, United Kingdom (UK) 17.58 46
22 University of St Andrews, United Kingdom (UK) 17.28 52
23 John Innes Centre (JIC), United Kingdom (UK) 15.84 39
24 The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), United Kingdom (UK) 15.65 47
25 University of Leicester, United Kingdom (UK) 15.04 61
26 The University of Warwick (Warwick), United Kingdom (UK) 14.73 54
27 University of Leeds, United Kingdom (UK) 14.73 67
28 AstraZeneca plc, United Kingdom (UK) 14.54 44
29 University of Sussex, United Kingdom (UK) 13.35 37
30 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 10.49 52
31 The University of Nottingham (UoN), United Kingdom (UK) 10.43 50
32 University of Liverpool, United Kingdom (UK) 10.40 65
33 University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom (UK) 8.54 46
34 University of East Anglia (UEA), United Kingdom (UK) 8.50 45
35 Birkbeck, University of London (BBK), United Kingdom (UK) 7.99 33
36 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), United Kingdom (UK) 7.88 45
37 Cancer Research UK (CRUK), United Kingdom (UK) 7.88 71
38 University of Reading, United Kingdom (UK) 7.29 27
39 Babraham Institute, United Kingdom (UK) 7.27 28
40 Natural History Museum, United Kingdom (UK) 6.15 24
41 Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (OUH), United Kingdom (UK) 5.75 80
42 University of Bath, United Kingdom (UK) 5.03 21
43 Durham University, United Kingdom (UK) 4.51 15
44 University of London - Royal Holloway (RHUL), United Kingdom (UK) 4.44 15
45 Queen's University Belfast (QUB), United Kingdom (UK) 4.38 25
46 Bangor University, United Kingdom (UK) 3.55 11
47 Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom (UK) 3.45 74
48 University of Kent, United Kingdom (UK) 3.32 21
49 University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom (UK) 3.26 12
50 NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), United Kingdom (UK) 3.05 10
51 NHS Lothian, United Kingdom (UK) 2.95 61
52 University of Hull, United Kingdom (UK) 2.81 8
53 Swansea University, United Kingdom (UK) 2.71 16
54 University of Surrey, United Kingdom (UK) 2.50 9
55 University of Essex, United Kingdom (UK) 2.49 12
56 Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), United Kingdom (UK) 2.44 13
57 Rothamsted Research, United Kingdom (UK) 2.27 9
58 Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom (UK) 2.18 41
59 St George's, University of London (SGUL), United Kingdom (UK) 1.99 18
60 University of Plymouth, United Kingdom (UK) 1.87 10
61 NERC National Oceanography Centre (NOC), United Kingdom (UK) 1.86 8
62 The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom (UK) 1.76 21
63 The Pirbright Institute, United Kingdom (UK) 1.74 5
64 Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom (UK) 1.68 46
65 University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom (UK) 1.57 19
66 Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, United Kingdom (UK) 1.51 18
67 Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom (UK) 1.51 4
68 Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, United Kingdom (UK) 1.49 26
69 Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), United Kingdom (UK) 1.44 33
70 Lancaster University, United Kingdom (UK) 1.38 11
71 Zoological Society of London (ZSL), United Kingdom (UK) 1.36 8
72 The Gatsby Charitable Foundation (Gatsby), United Kingdom (UK) 1.20 9
73 Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), United Kingdom (UK) 1.14 14
74 Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), United Kingdom (UK) 1.10 10
75 Royal Veterinary College, University of London (RVC), United Kingdom (UK) 1.09 5
76 University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), United Kingdom (UK) 1.07 15
77 Horizon Discovery Ltd., United Kingdom (UK) 1.05 2
78 University of Stirling, United Kingdom (UK) 0.99 7
79 Brunel University London, United Kingdom (UK) 0.96 2
80 King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom (UK) 0.93 19
81 The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NUTH), United Kingdom (UK) 0.93 16
82 UK Health Security Agency, United Kingdom (UK) 0.93 16
83 Bourn Hall Clinic, United Kingdom (UK) 0.90 2
84 Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT), United Kingdom (UK) 0.87 21
85 Aberystwyth University, United Kingdom (UK) 0.85 6
86 United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), United Kingdom (UK) 0.83 7
87 Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), United Kingdom (UK) 0.82 3
88 Royal Brompton NIHR Biomedical Research Units, United Kingdom (UK) 0.79 4
89 Keele University, United Kingdom (UK) 0.78 5
90 Marine Biological Association of the UK, United Kingdom (UK) 0.77 5
91 Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom (UK) 0.77 11
92 Quadram Institute Bioscience, United Kingdom (UK) 0.76 7
93 University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom (UK) 0.76 4
94 The James Hutton Institute, United Kingdom (UK) 0.75 7
95 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom (UK) 0.75 7
96 Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), United Kingdom (UK) 0.67 1
97 Aston University, United Kingdom (UK) 0.66 4
98 Abertay University, United Kingdom (UK) 0.66 14
99 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), United Kingdom (UK) 0.66 6
100 University of Ulster (UU), United Kingdom (UK) 0.60 3

Footnote

Each year, the Nature Index publishes tables based on counts of high-quality research outputs in the previous calendar year. Users please note:

  1. The data behind the tables are based on a relatively small proportion of total research papers, they cover the natural sciences only and outputs are non-normalized (that is, they don’t reflect the size of the country or institution, or its overall research output).
  2. The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance. The metrics of Count and Share used to order Nature Index listings are based on an institution’s or country’s publication output in 82 natural-science journals through 2022, in 2023 64 health-science journals were added to the Index. The 146 journals in the Nature Index were selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields.
  3. Nature Index recognizes that many other factors must be taken into account when considering research quality and institutional performance; Nature Index metrics alone should not be used to assess institutions or individuals.
  4. Nature Index data and methods are transparent and available under a creative commons licence at nature.com/nature-index/.
  5. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The Nature Index database undergoes regular updating, corrections, adjustment of institutional hierarchies, and removal of retracted papers and thus the live website can differ from the frozen annual tables.