2017 Research Leaders: Leading corporate institutions

The 2017 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016.

Table criteria

Region/country

Sector

Subject/journals

Position	Institution	Share 2015	Share 2016	Count 2016	Change in Adjusted Share* 2015–2016
1	F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Switzerland	45.66	43.91	99	-1.4%
2	Novartis AG, Switzerland	48.57	41.29	122	-12.8%
3	AstraZeneca plc, United Kingdom (UK)	27.17	32.19	113	21.5%
4	GSK, United Kingdom (UK)	27.88	17.92	76	-34.1%
5	BASF SE, Germany	10.12	12.76	59	29.3%
6	Boehringer Ingelheim, Germany	8.06	10.84	23	37.9%
7	Thales S.A., France	4.40	6.08	45	41.9%
8	Bayer AG, Germany	1.85	5.21	31	188.6%
9	Sanofi, France	12.14	5.13	26	-56.6%
10	Shell plc, United Kingdom (UK)	5.89	4.69	19	-18.5%
11	Novo Nordisk A/S, Denmark	3.64	4.36	12	22.9%
12	Merck KGaA, Germany	5.29	4.17	21	-19.2%
13	MorphoSys AG, Germany	0.00	4.14	7	0.0%
14	Center for Nanotechnology GmbH (CeNTech GmbH), Germany	3.51	3.62	19	5.9%
15	Nestlé S.A., Switzerland	2.33	3.43	13	50.8%
16	Norwegian Research Centre AS (NORCE), Norway	2.92	3.22	46	13.1%
17	Anglo American plc, United Kingdom (UK)	3.30	2.71	12	-15.9%
18	National Metrology and Testing (LNE), France	1.85	2.55	11	41.2%
19	KWH Water B.V., Netherlands	4.70	2.31	7	-49.7%
20	Siemens AG, Germany	2.20	2.21	25	3.0%
21	Koninklijke DSM N.V. (DSM), Netherlands	3.89	2.18	15	-42.7%
22	Haldor Topsøe A/S, Denmark	0.71	2.13	7	209.0%
23	Johnson Matthey (JM), United Kingdom (UK)	2.99	2.02	6	-30.6%
24	Veolia Environnement S.A., France	1.74	1.98	7	16.9%
25	Total S.A., France	1.83	1.93	10	7.9%
26	AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Austria	1.87	1.92	13	5.1%
27	Unilever, United Kingdom (UK)	1.01	1.86	14	88.6%
28	Firmenich International SA, Switzerland	2.54	1.63	3	-34.4%
29	Solvay S.A., Belgium	1.55	1.59	7	5.8%
30	UCB S.A., Belgium	2.74	1.56	18	-41.6%
31	Medcom Advance, S.A., Spain	1.27	1.52	3	22.0%
32	Genmab B.V., Netherlands	0.31	1.51	3	396.1%
33	Saint-Gobain SA, France	0.48	1.33	6	182.4%
34	EntreChem, S.L., Spain	0.67	1.27	2	94.9%
35	Evonik Industries AG, Germany	1.39	1.27	5	-6.7%
36	CrayoNano AS, Norway	0.15	1.25	5	758.0%
37	Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany	0.52	1.25	15	145.1%
38	ams-OSRAM AG, Austria	0.50	1.23	5	152.5%
39	Berliner Wasserbetriebe (BWB), Germany	0.90	1.22	4	38.5%
40	Nokia Corporation, Finland	2.06	1.22	12	-39.4%
41	Institut Dr. Nowak GmbH & Co. KG, Germany	0.00	1.17	3	0.0%
42	Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB), Austria	2.22	1.17	4	-46.1%
43	BP plc, United Kingdom (UK)	3.09	1.16	11	-61.6%
44	L'Oréal International, France	0.66	1.16	3	79.1%
45	Areva, France	1.00	1.13	2	15.4%
46	LGC Limited, United Kingdom (UK)	1.42	1.09	3	-21.1%
47	PicoQuant GmbH, Germany	0.00	1.04	2	0.0%
48	Eau de Paris, France	0.00	1.04	2	0.0%
49	Enamine Ltd., Ukraine	1.38	1.01	4	-25.0%
50	Earlham Institute (EI), United Kingdom (UK)	0.19	1.01	5	444.3%
51	Atotech Deutschland GmbH, Germany	0.00	1.00	1	0.0%
52	Électricité de France S.A. (EDF), France	1.21	0.92	7	-22.3%
53	Xtrion N.V., Belgium	0.00	0.92	1	0.0%
54	Techint Group, Italy	1.58	0.91	13	-41.1%
55	Mikron JSC, Russia	0.00	0.90	2	0.0%
56	Airbus SE, Netherlands	1.21	0.88	4	-25.1%
57	Profilomic, France	0.00	0.86	1	0.0%
58	Graphenea SA, Spain	0.49	0.85	4	77.2%
59	Rio Tinto plc, United Kingdom (UK)	0.05	0.85	9	1,645.5%
60	Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Philips), Netherlands	2.75	0.84	14	-68.8%
61	Wessex Water Services Ltd., United Kingdom (UK)	0.33	0.83	2	156.4%
61	Aguas de Barcelona, Metropolitan Business Management Integrated Water Cycle, SA, Spain	0.22	0.83	1	284.6%
62	Bevital AS, Norway	0.00	0.82	2	0.0%
63	Eni s.p.a., Italy	1.28	0.81	3	-34.9%
64	Attana AB, Sweden	0.00	0.79	2	0.0%
65	Life & Brain GmbH, Germany	0.48	0.77	11	63.8%
66	Becker & Hickl GmbH, Germany	0.00	0.75	2	0.0%
66	SGS SA, Switzerland	0.31	0.75	1	148.5%
66	Northern Research Institute (Norut), Norway	0.14	0.75	2	438.5%
67	Vernalis plc, United Kingdom (UK)	0.00	0.74	2	0.0%
68	Aixtron SE, Germany	0.00	0.73	2	0.0%
69	EN-FIST Centre of Excellence, Slovenia	0.34	0.72	5	116.8%
70	H. Lundbeck A/S, Denmark	0.79	0.69	2	-10.3%
71	GEO Specialty Chemicals, Inc., United Kingdom (UK)	0.00	0.69	2	0.0%
72	Fimlab Laboratories Ltd., Finland	0.23	0.68	23	205.5%
73	Pharma Mar, S.A., Spain	0.00	0.68	2	0.0%
74	Stallergenes Greer plc., United Kingdom (UK)	0.00	0.67	1	0.0%
74	Somaprobes S.L., Spain	0.00	0.67	1	0.0%
75	Vaisala Oyj, Finland	0.33	0.66	3	109.5%
76	Singulus Technologies AG, Germany	0.57	0.66	5	18.7%
77	F2G Ltd., United Kingdom (UK)	0.00	0.64	1	0.0%
78	Carl Zeiss AG, Germany	0.71	0.63	7	-8.7%
79	Servier Laboratories, France	1.16	0.63	2	-44.1%
80	Nanoplus Nanosystems and Technologies GmbH, Germany	1.20	0.63	1	-46.4%
80	Oasen N.V., Netherlands	0.00	0.63	3	0.0%
81	Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Germany	1.00	0.62	2	-36.2%
82	Argenx SE, Belgium	0.75	0.62	1	-15.4%
83	Groupe Danone S.A., France	0.33	0.61	3	87.1%
84	Galapagos N.V., Belgium	0.48	0.61	7	30.5%
85	Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), Sweden	1.39	0.61	15	-55.4%
86	Miltenyi Biotec GmbH, Germany	0.00	0.60	4	0.0%
87	SYGNIS Pharma AG, Germany	0.04	0.60	1	1,315.4%
88	Raith GmbH, Germany	0.00	0.59	2	0.0%
89	BAE Systems, United Kingdom (UK)	0.21	0.59	3	181.9%
90	Capita plc, United Kingdom (UK)	0.13	0.58	4	379.4%
91	Vivid Economics, United Kingdom (UK)	0.00	0.58	1	0.0%
91	NOXXON Pharma AG, Germany	1.67	0.58	2	-64.1%
92	Evotec AG, Germany	1.04	0.58	3	-42.5%
93	Abengoa S.A., Spain	1.23	0.58	2	-51.9%
94	Mestrelab Research SL, Spain	0.00	0.57	1	0.0%

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

The data behind the tables are based on a relatively small proportion of total research papers, they cover the natural sciences and health 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).
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 145 natural-science and health-science journals. The journals were selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields. The list is reviewed periodically and journals may be removed or added. Articles from eLife were no longer included in the Nature Index from 2023 after the journal changed its publishing model.
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.
Nature Index data and methods are transparent and available under a creative commons licence at nature.com/nature-index/.
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 research leaders.

Numerical information only is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

2017 Research Leaders: Leading corporate institutions

Table criteria

Footnote