2018 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in physical sciences

The 2018 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017.

Table criteria

Region/country

Sector

Subject/journals

Position	Institution	Share 2016	Share 2017	Count 2017	Change in Adjusted Share* 2016–2017
1	Max Planck Society, Germany	318.30	311.65	1084	-3.2%
2	French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France	302.24	272.65	1621	-10.8%
3	Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany	193.46	186.99	844	-4.5%
4	University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK)	162.40	145.72	507	-11.3%
5	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland	124.32	145.04	400	15.3%
6	National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy	118.92	117.06	647	-2.7%
7	University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK)	126.98	116.49	445	-9.3%
8	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland	101.08	91.36	285	-10.7%
9	Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia	91.32	90.94	566	-1.6%
10	Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain	82.48	90.46	673	8.4%
11	Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK)	78.89	76.47	367	-4.2%
12	Leibniz Association, Germany	75.51	66.48	281	-13.0%
13	National Research Council (CNR), Italy	60.45	57.20	264	-6.5%
14	European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland	53.18	55.47	394	3.1%
15	Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany	62.80	54.24	201	-14.6%
16	Sorbonne University, France	53.44	50.84	561	-6.0%
17	Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany	47.83	49.96	228	3.2%
18	Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain	47.33	49.69	211	3.8%
19	University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany	38.20	47.59	172	23.1%
20	Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany	55.86	47.36	230	-16.2%
21	The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France	61.04	47.32	504	-23.4%
22	University of Paris-Saclay, France	55.81	46.10	430	-18.4%
23	University of Hamburg (UHH), Germany	36.31	45.87	222	24.8%
24	University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark	46.50	45.65	234	-3.0%
25	Durham University, United Kingdom (UK)	57.64	44.80	120	-23.2%
26	Grenoble Alpes University (UGA), France	42.70	43.95	338	1.7%
27	TU Dresden, Germany	50.21	43.05	202	-15.3%
28	University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK)	52.76	42.82	187	-19.8%
29	UCL, United Kingdom (UK)	46.58	42.57	221	-9.7%
30	Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands	44.04	42.04	102	-5.7%
31	University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland	43.50	40.72	194	-7.5%
32	The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK)	33.94	39.72	248	15.7%
33	Lund University (LU), Sweden	33.66	39.71	165	16.6%
34	Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), Austria	32.75	38.70	145	16.8%
35	University of Amsterdam (UvA), Netherlands	33.71	37.35	313	9.5%
36	Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands	30.30	36.79	291	20.0%
37	Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany	39.62	35.67	246	-11.0%
38	Leiden University, Netherlands	31.04	33.37	116	6.3%
39	University of Groningen (RUG), Netherlands	31.33	32.99	154	4.1%
40	Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium	32.87	32.64	88	-1.9%
41	RWTH Aachen University (RWTH Aachen), Germany	30.69	32.01	251	3.1%
42	The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK)	27.50	31.67	241	13.8%
43	Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Netherlands	36.23	31.64	71	-13.7%
44	Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain	45.89	31.49	259	-32.2%
45	University of Basel (UB), Switzerland	27.87	31.11	69	10.3%
46	Aalto University, Finland	35.50	30.88	173	-14.0%
47	Uppsala University (UU), Sweden	32.59	30.71	181	-6.9%
48	King's College London (KCL), United Kingdom (UK)	31.44	30.17	149	-5.2%
49	University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland	28.47	29.65	263	2.9%
50	University of Bonn (Uni Bonn), Germany	24.13	29.46	171	20.6%
51	Radboud University Nijmegen (RU), Netherlands	31.92	29.21	267	-9.5%
52	Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark	30.13	28.65	88	-6.0%
53	University of Barcelona (UB), Spain	28.47	28.49	160	-1.1%
54	University of Regensburg (UR), Germany	31.82	28.44	56	-11.7%
55	National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy	35.17	28.35	134	-20.3%
56	The University of Warwick (Warwick), United Kingdom (UK)	23.44	28.26	209	19.2%
57	Chalmers University of Technology (Chalmers), Sweden	30.02	28.17	78	-7.3%
58	Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland	29.60	28.05	178	-6.4%
59	University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK)	15.15	27.99	193	82.6%
60	Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin), Germany	25.21	27.77	124	8.9%
61	University of Göttingen, Germany	17.91	26.32	129	45.2%
62	KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden	25.11	25.96	236	2.1%
63	Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), Czech Republic	19.01	25.38	182	32.0%
64	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany	30.26	25.28	94	-17.5%
65	University of Glasgow, United Kingdom (UK)	23.04	24.78	214	6.3%
66	Université PSL, France	22.19	24.51	287	9.2%
67	The University of Nottingham (UoN), United Kingdom (UK)	24.14	24.51	64	0.3%
68	University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain	23.21	24.49	111	4.3%
69	Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), Poland	24.53	24.39	265	-1.7%
70	Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), Russia	23.86	23.43	292	-3.0%
71	Linköping University (LiU), Sweden	14.69	23.09	58	55.4%
72	Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Austria	17.69	22.77	185	27.2%
73	UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), United Kingdom (UK)	21.63	22.51	357	2.9%
74	University of Lyon, France	25.12	22.12	212	-13.0%
75	University of Bern (UniBE), Switzerland	19.98	21.69	170	7.3%
76	Aarhus University (AU), Denmark	27.49	21.63	66	-22.2%
77	Sapienza University of Rome, Italy	19.29	21.61	293	10.7%
78	Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), Germany	22.30	21.18	59	-6.2%
79	Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Italy	20.34	21.16	87	2.8%
80	University of Freiburg (Uni Freiburg), Germany	15.83	20.78	121	29.8%
81	University of Lisbon (ULISBOA), Portugal	19.44	20.70	141	5.3%
82	Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy	20.74	20.66	78	-1.5%
83	University of Valencia (UV), Spain	20.68	20.65	215	-1.3%
84	Stockholm University, Sweden	11.13	20.52	201	82.1%
85	Humboldt University of Berlin (HU Berlin), Germany	23.87	20.46	175	-15.3%
86	Technical University of Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt), Germany	22.08	20.16	87	-9.8%
87	University of Stuttgart, Germany	27.53	20.15	73	-27.7%
88	University of Vienna, Austria	18.83	20.04	71	5.2%
89	The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom (UK)	22.19	19.87	136	-11.5%
90	University of Cologne (UoC), Germany	21.01	19.70	67	-7.3%
91	University of Münster (WWU), Germany	15.45	19.39	89	24.1%
92	NWO-I, the Institutes Organisation of NWO, Netherlands	18.68	19.16	265	1.4%
93	Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain	14.42	18.94	64	29.8%
94	National Research Center Kurchatov Institute (NRCKI), Russia	21.40	18.76	286	-13.3%
95	Paris Cité University, France	21.24	18.69	331	-13.0%
96	University of Exeter, United Kingdom (UK)	12.61	18.21	49	42.8%
97	Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), Germany	13.57	17.94	80	30.7%
98	University of Liverpool, United Kingdom (UK)	20.91	17.65	199	-16.6%
99	University of Warsaw (UW), Poland	18.28	17.32	150	-6.3%
100	Ulm University, Germany	15.97	17.32	63	7.2%

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.

2018 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in physical sciences

Table criteria

Footnote