2022 Leading institutions - fields of research*

The 2022 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021.

Table criteria

Position Institution Location Share Count
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) China 126.45 349
2 South China University of Technology (SCUT) China 40.48 78
3 Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS) China 39.68 96
4 Zhejiang University (ZJU) China 39.45 72
5 Fudan University China 36.58 60
6 Nankai University (NKU) China 36.54 63
7 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) France 32.40 149
8 Peking University (PKU) China 31.87 119
9 Northwestern University (NU) United States of America (USA) 30.80 57
10 Tianjin University (TJU) China 30.74 74
11 Jilin University (JLU) China 29.60 52
12 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) China 29.23 58
13 Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT) China 28.56 46
14 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) China 27.78 126
15 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres Germany 26.04 91
16 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo) Japan 24.99 41
17 East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) China 22.71 35
18 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) China 22.07 63
19 Soochow University China 21.71 47
20 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) Switzerland 21.38 43
21 University of Cambridge United Kingdom (UK) 21.13 51
22 Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) China 20.93 40
23 National University of Singapore (NUS) Singapore 20.43 51
24 Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) China 20.32 43
25 Nanjing University (NJU) China 20.06 38
26 Max Planck Society Germany 19.98 52
27 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Saudi Arabia 19.86 38
28 Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) Netherlands 19.72 29
29 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States of America (USA) 19.67 38
30 Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) China 19.04 37
31 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) United States of America (USA) 17.92 36
32 Seoul National University (SNU) South Korea 17.85 31
33 Sichuan University (SCU) China 17.69 34
34 Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) Japan 16.93 29
35 Tsinghua University China 16.59 40
36 University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) Australia 16.22 33
37 Shandong University (SDU) China 15.72 28
38 Osaka University Japan 15.35 29
39 Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Russia 15.01 29
40 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder) United States of America (USA) 14.70 24
41 Technical University of Munich (TUM) Germany 14.67 29
42 Dalian University of Technology (DUT) China 14.43 26
43 University of Münster (WWU) Germany 14.38 20
44 Stanford University United States of America (USA) 14.36 32
45 Kyoto University Japan 14.21 35
46 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) United States of America (USA) 14.20 31
47 Xiamen University (XMU) China 13.97 31
48 Wuhan University (WHU) China 13.70 28
49 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) United States of America (USA) 13.66 21
50 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) South Korea 13.56 26

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 research leaders.

* Field of research (FOR) tables represent an editorial selection, chosen from the four natural-sciences subject areas tracked by the Nature Index (biological sciences, physical sciences, chemistry and Earth and environmental sciences).