2019 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in physical sciences

The 2019 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018.

Table criteria

Region/country

Sector

Subject/journals

Position	Institution	Share 2017	Share 2018	Count 2018	Change in Adjusted Share* 2017–2018
1	Max Planck Society, Germany	311.65	323.63	1131	-1.8%
2	French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France	272.65	252.62	1655	-12.4%
3	Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany	186.99	185.07	914	-6.4%
4	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland	145.04	168.78	471	10.1%
5	University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK)	145.72	141.98	497	-7.8%
6	National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy	117.06	133.24	693	7.7%
7	Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia	90.94	117.56	611	22.3%
8	University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK)	116.49	111.51	431	-9.5%
9	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland	91.36	97.61	304	1.1%
10	Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain	90.46	83.18	667	-13.0%
11	Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK)	76.47	82.50	396	2.0%
12	European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland	55.47	69.39	435	18.3%
13	Leibniz Association, Germany	66.48	67.98	292	-3.3%
14	Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany	47.36	66.58	267	33.0%
15	Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany	54.24	58.72	228	2.4%
16	University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK)	42.82	54.85	215	21.2%
17	University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark	45.65	53.20	227	10.2%
18	Sorbonne University, France	50.84	52.09	549	-3.1%
19	National Research Council (CNR), Italy	57.20	51.45	270	-14.9%
20	Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands	42.04	51.39	133	15.6%
21	Durham University, United Kingdom (UK)	44.80	50.88	122	7.4%
22	University of Paris-Saclay, France	46.10	47.19	423	-3.2%
23	Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain	49.69	47.19	196	-10.2%
24	Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands	36.79	46.20	281	18.8%
25	The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France	47.32	45.24	534	-9.6%
26	Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany	35.67	44.71	275	18.5%
27	Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany	49.96	44.29	222	-16.1%
28	UCL, United Kingdom (UK)	42.57	44.16	229	-1.9%
29	University of Hamburg (UHH), Germany	45.87	41.24	253	-15.0%
30	University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany	47.59	40.55	152	-19.4%
31	University of Amsterdam (UvA), Netherlands	37.35	40.14	300	1.6%
32	Uppsala University (UU), Sweden	30.71	39.94	203	23.0%
33	The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK)	39.72	39.45	242	-6.1%
34	TU Dresden, Germany	43.05	38.26	204	-15.9%
35	University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland	29.65	37.56	280	19.8%
36	University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland	40.72	35.69	187	-17.1%
37	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany	25.28	34.77	100	30.1%
38	Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Netherlands	31.64	34.63	91	3.5%
39	KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden	25.96	34.31	240	25.0%
40	Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), Austria	38.70	33.75	165	-17.5%
41	Leiden University, Netherlands	33.37	33.26	120	-5.7%
42	Chalmers University of Technology (Chalmers), Sweden	28.17	33.25	93	11.6%
43	Grenoble Alpes University (UGA), France	43.95	33.06	294	-28.8%
44	Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium	32.64	32.49	93	-5.8%
45	Aalto University, Finland	30.88	32.25	215	-1.2%
46	Lund University (LU), Sweden	39.71	32.07	160	-23.6%
47	RWTH Aachen University (RWTH Aachen), Germany	32.01	30.43	261	-10.1%
48	University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK)	27.99	30.33	215	2.5%
49	National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy	28.35	30.25	124	0.9%
50	King's College London (KCL), United Kingdom (UK)	30.17	30.19	146	-5.4%
51	Aarhus University (AU), Denmark	21.63	30.06	85	31.5%
52	Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain	31.49	29.80	284	-10.5%
53	Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), Czech Republic	25.38	29.41	191	9.6%
54	The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK)	31.67	28.97	226	-13.5%
55	University of Groningen (RUG), Netherlands	32.99	28.93	145	-17.1%
56	Goethe University Frankfurt (GU), Germany	15.29	28.89	94	78.7%
57	Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland	28.05	28.67	219	-3.3%
58	University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain	24.49	27.99	118	8.1%
59	University of Regensburg (UR), Germany	28.44	27.81	70	-7.5%
60	National Research Center Kurchatov Institute (NRCKI), Russia	18.76	27.69	334	39.6%
61	University of Stuttgart, Germany	20.15	27.25	103	27.9%
62	University of Bonn (Uni Bonn), Germany	29.46	26.46	152	-15.1%
63	Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), Poland	24.39	26.45	235	2.6%
64	Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark	28.65	26.18	89	-13.6%
65	University of Warsaw (UW), Poland	17.32	25.86	181	41.2%
66	University of Lisbon (ULISBOA), Portugal	20.70	25.63	157	17.1%
67	Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin), Germany	27.77	25.62	124	-12.7%
68	The University of Warwick (Warwick), United Kingdom (UK)	28.26	25.61	182	-14.3%
69	University of Vienna, Austria	20.04	25.59	105	20.8%
70	University of Basel (UB), Switzerland	31.11	25.08	63	-23.7%
71	Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy	20.66	25.02	87	14.6%
72	Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Italy	21.16	24.89	82	11.2%
73	The University of Nottingham (UoN), United Kingdom (UK)	24.51	24.51	62	-5.4%
74	Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), Russia	23.43	24.42	318	-1.4%
75	Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), United Kingdom (UK)	15.88	23.48	147	39.9%
76	Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Austria	22.77	23.36	218	-3.0%
77	Université PSL, France	24.51	23.31	304	-10.1%
78	Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain	18.94	23.04	84	15.0%
79	UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), United Kingdom (UK)	22.51	22.94	395	-3.6%
80	University of Cologne (UoC), Germany	19.70	22.93	87	10.1%
81	University of Barcelona (UB), Spain	28.49	22.20	143	-26.3%
82	University of Bern (UniBE), Switzerland	21.69	22.00	130	-4.1%
83	University of Valencia (UV), Spain	20.65	20.79	195	-4.8%
84	Sapienza University of Rome, Italy	21.61	20.67	323	-9.5%
85	University of Freiburg (Uni Freiburg), Germany	20.78	20.52	107	-6.6%
86	Humboldt University of Berlin (HU Berlin), Germany	20.46	20.48	181	-5.3%
87	University of Leeds, United Kingdom (UK)	12.88	20.27	58	48.9%
88	Stockholm University, Sweden	20.52	20.26	191	-6.6%
89	Ghent University (UGent), Belgium	10.72	20.10	149	77.3%
90	Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium	16.24	19.92	167	16.0%
91	University of Twente (UTwente), Netherlands	13.22	19.77	45	41.5%
92	University of Birmingham (UB), United Kingdom (UK)	17.28	19.72	190	8.0%
93	Radboud University Nijmegen (RU), Netherlands	29.21	19.32	239	-37.5%
94	Paris Cité University, France	18.69	18.45	300	-6.6%
95	University of Lyon, France	22.12	18.27	216	-21.9%
96	University of St Andrews, United Kingdom (UK)	14.59	18.13	64	17.5%
97	NWO-I, the Institutes Organisation of NWO, Netherlands	19.16	18.10	244	-10.7%
98	University of Glasgow, United Kingdom (UK)	24.78	18.05	179	-31.1%
99	Technical University of Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt), Germany	20.16	17.20	78	-19.3%
100	University of Innsbruck (LFU), Austria	17.21	17.02	115	-6.5%

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.
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2019 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in physical sciences

Table criteria

Footnote