2021 tables: Institutions - life sciences - academic

The 2021 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

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# Institution Share 2019 Share 2020 Count 2020 Change in Adjusted Share 2019-2020*
1 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 211.94 219.88 749 -4.1%
2 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 168.84 186.28 688 2.0%
3 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 126.00 126.28 497 -7.3%
4 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 80.54 94.40 377 8.4%
5 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 87.95 89.12 295 -6.3%
6 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 69.58 88.49 380 17.6%
7 Karolinska Institute (KI), Sweden 74.92 88.44 381 9.2%
8 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 76.40 78.95 352 -4.4%
9 The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK) 80.23 78.86 328 -9.1%
10 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 73.11 69.01 312 -12.7%
11 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 47.28 68.11 327 33.2%
12 University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland 51.79 55.08 194 -1.6%
13 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 44.94 52.18 252 7.4%
14 University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK) 41.07 52.17 172 17.5%
15 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 50.67 49.39 153 -9.8%
16 King's College London (KCL), United Kingdom (UK) 42.44 48.09 240 4.8%
17 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 32.16 46.87 246 34.8%
18 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 44.75 46.22 148 -4.5%
19 University of Basel (UB), Switzerland 46.92 45.74 191 -9.8%
20 University of Tübingen (Uni Tübingen), Germany 36.41 42.90 214 9.0%
21 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 27.69 40.13 132 34.0%
22 University of Freiburg (Uni Freiburg), Germany 42.61 38.67 151 -16.1%
23 Uppsala University (UU), Sweden 30.55 38.56 222 16.7%
24 Goethe University Frankfurt (GU), Germany 28.03 37.13 148 22.5%
25 Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium 47.89 37.00 196 -28.6%
26 Leiden University, Netherlands 30.52 36.84 199 11.6%
27 University of Helsinki, Finland 34.01 36.13 204 -1.8%
28 Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin), Germany 33.39 35.97 340 -0.4%
29 University of Cologne (UoC), Germany 32.70 35.94 158 1.6%
30 University of Groningen (RUG), Netherlands 34.44 35.79 169 -3.9%
31 University of Münster (WWU), Germany 17.54 35.50 121 87.1%
32 The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK) 33.37 35.44 177 -1.8%
33 Radboud University Nijmegen (RU), Netherlands 33.55 35.39 218 -2.5%
34 Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), United Kingdom (UK) 17.63 34.90 145 83.1%
35 Lund University (LU), Sweden 26.51 34.49 154 20.3%
36 Aarhus University (AU), Denmark 27.53 33.41 152 12.2%
37 University of Göttingen, Germany 29.62 30.51 154 -4.8%
38 University of Glasgow, United Kingdom (UK) 40.81 30.31 149 -31.3%
39 University of Exeter, United Kingdom (UK) 31.81 30.29 132 -12.0%
40 University of Bern (UniBE), Switzerland 24.41 30.27 126 14.7%
41 Humboldt University of Berlin (HU Berlin), Germany 26.15 30.05 342 6.3%
42 University of Amsterdam (UvA), Netherlands 30.90 30.02 252 -10.2%
43 University of Paris, France 29.79 29.87 340 -7.3%
44 VU Amsterdam, Netherlands 23.79 29.70 211 15.5%
45 University of Hamburg (UHH), Germany 37.64 29.12 164 -28.5%
46 University of Oslo (UiO), Norway 34.80 29.03 139 -22.9%
47 Sorbonne University, France 33.71 28.31 348 -22.4%
48 The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom (UK) 31.25 27.77 89 -17.8%
49 University of Birmingham (UB), United Kingdom (UK) 23.59 27.76 136 8.8%
50 Ghent University (UGent), Belgium 23.33 27.61 139 9.4%
51 Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), Austria 14.35 27.60 57 77.9%
52 University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany 19.95 27.09 85 25.5%
53 Stockholm University, Sweden 26.34 26.54 191 -6.8%
54 University of Gothenburg (GU), Sweden 23.75 26.52 141 3.3%
55 University of Bonn (Uni Bonn), Germany 27.76 25.84 145 -13.9%
56 Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Netherlands 22.77 24.39 153 -0.9%
57 Newcastle University, United Kingdom (UK) 30.48 23.83 108 -27.7%
58 University of Leeds, United Kingdom (UK) 20.41 22.83 89 3.4%
59 TU Dresden, Germany 18.35 22.45 154 13.1%
60 Aix-Marseille University (AMU), France 23.00 22.21 148 -10.7%
61 University of Vienna, Austria 21.53 21.56 129 -7.4%
62 Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), Germany 14.59 21.21 103 34.4%
63 University of Montpellier, France 22.20 20.76 221 -13.5%
64 University of Barcelona (UB), Spain 18.33 20.60 168 3.9%
65 University of Dundee, United Kingdom (UK) 20.17 20.13 85 -7.7%
66 Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Netherlands 19.90 19.11 114 -11.2%
67 Cardiff University, United Kingdom (UK) 19.55 18.69 103 -11.6%
68 University of Lyon, France 18.44 18.26 144 -8.4%
69 Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark 16.34 17.54 85 -0.7%
70 Université PSL, France 19.29 17.47 238 -16.3%
71 University of Bordeaux, France 13.17 17.30 127 21.4%
72 Medical University of Vienna (MUW), Austria 20.03 17.22 132 -20.5%
73 University of Toulouse, France 18.02 17.11 137 -12.2%
74 The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), United Kingdom (UK) 9.98 16.64 85 54.3%
75 Philipps University of Marburg (Uni Marburg), Germany 14.46 16.60 85 6.2%
76 The University of Nottingham (UoN), United Kingdom (UK) 8.96 16.39 100 69.2%
77 University of Regensburg (UR), Germany 13.08 16.25 66 14.9%
78 University of Liverpool, United Kingdom (UK) 15.80 16.11 89 -5.7%
79 University of Paris-Sud (UPSud), France 16.40 15.80 208 -10.9%
80 University of Konstanz, Germany 11.15 15.68 52 30.0%
81 University of St Andrews, United Kingdom (UK) 10.66 15.33 60 32.9%
82 Hannover Medical School (MHH), Germany 13.07 15.19 97 7.5%
83 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany 13.78 14.88 83 -0.2%
84 Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium 9.93 14.66 60 36.5%
85 Umeå University (UMU), Sweden 10.75 14.56 97 25.2%
86 The University of Warwick (Warwick), United Kingdom (UK) 11.37 14.31 81 16.4%
87 Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium 11.84 14.01 63 9.4%
88 Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Spain 11.38 13.93 130 13.2%
89 Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway 14.40 13.73 87 -11.8%
90 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 10.69 13.48 83 16.6%
91 Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), Germany 11.10 13.46 58 12.1%
92 University of Sussex, United Kingdom (UK) 11.76 12.95 41 1.8%
93 University of Trento (UNITN), Italy 10.25 12.60 63 13.6%
94 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), United Kingdom (UK) 6.30 12.01 69 76.2%
95 Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain 11.52 11.93 89 -4.3%
96 Leipzig University, Germany 9.33 11.91 119 18.0%
97 The University of Dublin, Ireland 10.27 11.90 63 7.1%
98 Maastricht University (UM), Netherlands 8.51 11.77 84 27.9%
99 Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU), Germany 6.95 11.69 111 55.5%
100 University of Kiel (CAU), Germany 13.21 11.65 91 -18.4%

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, 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/.

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.

*The change in adjusted Share accounts for the small annual variation in the total number of articles in Nature Index journals. Share values have been adjusted to 2021 levels to calculate the percentage change. For more information on the adjustment, please see the Adjusted metric explainer.


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