2018 Research Leaders: Leading government institutions

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

Table criteria

Position Institution Share 2016 Share 2017 Count 2017 Change in Adjusted Share* 2016–2017
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 1590.03 1535.47 4159 -4.8% Decrease
2 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 751.93 714.05 4205 -6.4% Decrease
3 National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States of America (USA) 341.12 380.31 934 9.9% Increase
4 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 216.70 203.17 1175 -7.6% Decrease
5 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 180.09 186.01 876 1.8% Increase
6 RIKEN, Japan 155.91 153.05 570 -3.2% Decrease
7 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States of America (USA) 151.14 135.39 696 -11.7% Decrease
8 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 122.78 121.87 621 -2.2% Decrease
9 National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy 120.25 119.04 661 -2.4% Decrease
10 Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), United States of America (USA) 111.22 117.67 389 4.3% Increase
11 National Research Council (CNR), Italy 126.18 114.37 533 -10.7% Decrease
12 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), United States of America (USA) 98.13 101.09 245 1.5% Increase
13 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), United Kingdom (UK) 90.04 100.03 677 9.5% Increase
14 Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India 112.03 96.96 169 -14.7% Decrease
15 The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France 113.22 95.87 880 -16.5% Decrease
16 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America (USA) 98.32 94.77 317 -5.0% Decrease
17 National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), France 93.83 93.18 917 -2.1% Decrease
18 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), United States of America (USA) 94.62 89.25 376 -7.0% Decrease
19 Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), Czech Republic 74.51 88.90 382 17.6% Increase
20 U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), United States of America (USA) 94.14 87.15 316 -8.7% Decrease
21 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States of America (USA) 84.83 79.88 313 -7.2% Decrease
22 Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore 75.69 79.84 287 4.0% Increase
23 National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan 77.28 73.49 238 -6.3% Decrease
24 Institute for Basic Science (IBS), South Korea 70.81 71.57 289 -0.4% Decrease
25 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), United States of America (USA) 73.84 71.46 200 -4.6% Decrease
26 Academia Sinica, Taiwan 76.82 70.44 318 -9.6% Decrease
27 Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States of America (USA) 75.95 67.91 319 -11.9% Decrease
28 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan 67.48 63.06 212 -7.9% Decrease
29 People's Liberation Army (PLA), China 56.69 59.07 205 2.7% Increase
30 European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland 53.80 55.89 399 2.4% Increase
31 Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), Poland 49.00 55.76 346 12.2% Increase
32 Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland 50.04 51.70 254 1.8% Increase
33 Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), India 44.60 49.53 218 9.5% Increase
34 Sandia National Laboratories, United States of America (USA) 43.75 45.23 158 1.9% Increase
35 European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Germany 45.66 45.05 240 -2.7% Decrease
36 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), United States of America (USA) 45.18 40.43 192 -11.8% Decrease
37 Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), South Korea 32.48 40.41 131 22.6% Increase
38 The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia 52.17 39.29 177 -25.8% Decrease
39 National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Argentina 41.79 38.29 267 -9.7% Decrease
40 Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Austria 32.37 38.23 258 16.4% Increase
41 National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), France 41.62 37.49 349 -11.2% Decrease
42 Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy 35.75 37.00 130 2.0% Increase
43 National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy 37.99 34.86 164 -9.6% Decrease
44 Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS), Hungary 38.93 34.33 270 -13.1% Decrease
45 Smithsonian Institution, United States of America (USA) 44.17 33.77 232 -24.6% Decrease
46 Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII), Spain 28.47 31.69 197 9.7% Increase
47 NWO-I, the Institutes Organisation of NWO, Netherlands 35.02 31.37 334 -11.7% Decrease
48 Institute of Research for Development (IRD), France 33.16 30.72 516 -8.7% Decrease
49 National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), Italy 33.11 30.02 65 -10.6% Decrease
50 National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS), Japan 28.60 27.79 151 -4.2% Decrease
51 Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China 21.14 26.85 91 25.2% Increase
52 Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS), South Korea 22.51 26.73 68 17.0% Increase
53 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), United States of America (USA) 22.43 26.69 139 17.3% Increase
54 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, United States of America (USA) 30.90 25.85 324 -17.5% Decrease
55 National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), United States of America (USA) 29.06 25.67 76 -12.9% Decrease
56 China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP), China 22.47 24.66 98 8.2% Increase
57 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United States of America (USA) 26.78 24.55 61 -9.6% Decrease
58 Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), Switzerland 32.29 24.41 82 -25.5% Decrease
59 Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Canada 22.29 23.84 64 5.4% Increase
60 China Meteorological Administration (CMA), China 19.44 23.29 82 18.1% Increase
61 European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), France 23.57 23.27 138 -2.7% Decrease
62 Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), Switzerland 21.33 22.01 74 1.7% Increase
63 Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Japan 27.45 21.78 85 -21.8% Decrease
64 National Research Center Kurchatov Institute (NRCKI), Russia 22.84 20.84 301 -10.1% Decrease
65 National Research Council (NRC), Canada 16.42 19.92 94 19.6% Increase
66 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), United States of America (USA) 17.67 19.10 141 6.6% Increase
67 High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Japan 18.58 19.02 168 0.9% Increase
68 Brazil Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication (MCTIC), Brazil 18.17 17.93 213 -2.8% Decrease
69 NERC British Antarctic Survey (BAS), United Kingdom (UK) 14.47 17.50 47 19.3% Increase
70 Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), India 27.96 17.11 122 -39.7% Decrease
71 Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Russia 10.61 16.24 224 50.8% Increase
72 Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI), India 18.29 16.19 32 -12.7% Decrease
73 National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing (NIBS), China 20.95 15.93 57 -25.1% Decrease
74 China Earthquake Administration (CEA), China 14.79 15.89 34 5.9% Increase
75 Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), India 9.22 15.19 114 62.3% Increase
76 Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), China 15.86 14.89 120 -7.5% Decrease
77 Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Italy 18.98 14.61 139 -24.1% Decrease
78 Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Australia 14.77 14.06 69 -6.2% Decrease
79 Jozef Stefan Institute (IJS), Slovenia 11.52 14.02 128 20.0% Increase
80 Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI), Japan 11.88 13.90 111 15.3% Increase
81 India Department of Space (DOS), India 21.38 13.59 30 -37.4% Decrease
82 Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS), Japan 15.26 13.13 62 -15.2% Decrease
83 IMDEA Institutes, Spain 17.58 12.44 56 -30.3% Decrease
84 NERC National Oceanography Centre (NOC), United Kingdom (UK) 12.33 11.53 58 -7.8% Decrease
85 National Museum of Natural History (MNHN), France 9.96 11.43 146 13.1% Increase
86 Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), Greece 10.53 11.05 55 3.5% Increase
87 The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), Ukraine 11.57 10.87 191 -7.4% Decrease
88 Met Office, United Kingdom (UK) 15.46 10.30 33 -34.4% Decrease
89 European Southern Observatory (ESO), Germany 9.10 10.23 84 10.8% Increase
90 Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Iran 14.59 10.12 97 -31.6% Decrease
91 Natural History Museum, United Kingdom (UK) 11.51 10.08 56 -13.6% Decrease
92 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), United States of America (USA) 8.65 9.22 36 5.1% Increase
93 National Physical Laboratory (NPL), United Kingdom (UK) 10.40 9.17 47 -13.0% Decrease
94 National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), India 7.45 9.03 110 19.5% Increase
95 National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST), Japan 11.46 8.80 28 -24.3% Decrease
96 Joint Genome Institute (JGI), United States of America (USA) 9.45 8.80 39 -8.2% Decrease
97 National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC), Taiwan 6.65 8.77 42 30.0% Increase
98 Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France 8.33 8.77 167 3.8% Increase
99 Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), South Korea 9.20 8.68 25 -6.9% Decrease
100 National Science Foundation (NSF), United States of America (USA) 6.87 8.61 73 23.6% Increase

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 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).
  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 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.
  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 research leaders.