2024 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in biological sciences

The 2024 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023.

Table criteria

Position Institution Share 2022 Share 2023 Count 2023 Change in Adjusted Share* 2022–2023
1 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 590.98 522.54 1500 -1.4% Decrease
2 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 274.41 299.99 1131 21.9% Increase
3 National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States of America (USA) 310.28 272.14 688 -2.2% Decrease
4 Max Planck Society, Germany 257.45 240.29 910 4.0% Increase
5 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 280.12 183.42 670 -27.0% Decrease
6 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 204.08 170.60 444 -6.8% Decrease
7 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 178.03 161.37 477 1.0% Increase
8 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 149.00 155.19 433 16.1% Increase
9 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 161.18 154.79 450 7.1% Increase
10 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 177.38 154.71 804 -2.8% Decrease
11 University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), United States of America (USA) 178.43 153.66 508 -4.0% Decrease
12 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 166.73 146.82 415 -1.8% Decrease
13 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 132.22 140.08 377 18.1% Increase
14 Peking University (PKU), China 115.98 139.07 417 33.7% Increase
15 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 163.92 136.98 529 -6.8% Decrease
16 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 159.89 136.49 522 -4.8% Decrease
17 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 158.07 134.94 1111 -4.8% Decrease
18 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 113.80 125.60 345 23.0% Increase
19 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 156.75 124.52 421 -11.4% Decrease
20 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 171.76 120.79 403 -21.6% Decrease
21 New York University (NYU), United States of America (USA) 135.98 114.75 319 -5.9% Decrease
22 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 136.76 114.52 335 -6.6% Decrease
23 Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), China 94.98 113.50 270 33.2% Increase
24 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 128.28 108.76 387 -5.5% Decrease
25 The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center), United States of America (USA) 124.44 107.87 235 -3.4% Decrease
26 Duke University, United States of America (USA) 113.78 101.75 312 -0.3% Decrease
27 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 111.58 101.57 749 1.5% Increase
28 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 124.92 100.85 317 -10.0% Decrease
29 Fudan University, China 107.92 97.77 314 1.0% Increase
30 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 120.54 95.99 377 -11.2% Decrease
31 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 98.23 93.68 316 6.3% Increase
32 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 105.47 91.89 221 -2.9% Decrease
33 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 89.01 91.46 553 14.6% Increase
34 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 106.14 87.11 391 -8.5% Decrease
35 Tsinghua University, China 80.75 81.86 281 13.0% Increase
36 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 86.79 81.20 212 4.3% Increase
37 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 107.05 80.98 274 -15.7% Decrease
38 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 80.50 80.79 333 11.9% Increase
39 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), United States of America (USA) 82.09 79.68 265 8.2% Increase
40 Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), United States of America (USA) 64.63 74.44 271 28.4% Increase
41 McGill University, Canada 83.14 74.31 232 -0.4% Decrease
42 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 88.73 73.27 282 -7.9% Decrease
43 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 97.02 72.38 215 -16.8% Decrease
44 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), United States of America (USA) 86.21 72.32 263 -6.5% Decrease
45 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 67.92 70.79 217 16.2% Increase
46 Karolinska Institute (KI), Sweden 87.84 70.67 318 -10.3% Decrease
47 National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), France 85.47 69.44 738 -9.4% Decrease
48 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 83.64 68.70 337 -8.4% Decrease
49 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 75.09 66.18 293 -1.7% Decrease
50 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 60.02 65.54 215 21.7% Increase
51 Vanderbilt University (VU), United States of America (USA) 83.61 65.27 195 -13.0% Decrease
52 The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States of America (USA) 72.62 65.12 259 0.0% Increase
53 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 84.81 62.30 181 -18.1% Decrease
54 Mount Sinai Health System (MSHS), United States of America (USA) 77.68 61.16 308 -12.2% Decrease
55 University of Southern California (USC), United States of America (USA) 62.76 60.06 192 6.7% Increase
56 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 51.96 59.66 285 28.0% Increase
57 University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), United States of America (USA) 78.74 59.41 219 -15.9% Decrease
58 The Rockefeller University, United States of America (USA) 79.45 57.51 178 -19.3% Decrease
59 The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia 40.56 57.22 198 57.3% Increase
60 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 53.42 57.02 261 19.0% Increase
61 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 63.01 56.86 151 0.6% Increase
62 Emory University, United States of America (USA) 57.06 56.25 214 9.9% Increase
63 Shandong University (SDU), China 33.85 54.82 138 80.5% Increase
64 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 53.71 54.54 127 13.2% Increase
65 Wuhan University (WHU), China 32.82 54.45 137 84.9% Increase
66 Kyoto University, Japan 50.84 51.75 197 13.5% Increase
67 University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland 42.97 51.38 189 33.3% Increase
68 Leibniz Association, Germany 48.46 51.06 383 17.5% Increase
69 Osaka University, Japan 44.78 49.69 147 23.7% Increase
70 The Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom (UK) 45.26 48.85 160 20.3% Increase
71 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 51.57 48.02 146 3.8% Increase
72 University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan Medical School), United States of America (USA) 54.43 47.96 161 -1.8% Decrease
73 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 52.45 47.68 206 1.3% Increase
74 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 53.26 47.59 347 -0.4% Decrease
75 Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China 31.87 47.51 180 66.2% Increase
76 Sichuan University (SCU), China 35.53 47.13 110 47.9% Increase
77 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), United Kingdom (UK) 44.01 46.77 241 18.5% Increase
78 The University of Hong Kong (HKU), China 36.58 46.20 145 40.8% Increase
79 The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada 59.01 45.20 168 -14.6% Decrease
80 Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Israel 51.91 44.91 104 -3.6% Decrease
81 University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA) 45.47 44.76 135 9.7% Increase
82 University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CU Anschutz), United States of America (USA) 49.73 44.71 161 0.2% Increase
83 Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare (IRCCS), Italy 44.67 44.29 199 10.5% Increase
84 European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Germany 44.32 44.01 281 10.7% Increase
85 University of Florida (UF), United States of America (USA) 34.82 43.85 151 40.4% Increase
86 People's Liberation Army (PLA), China 49.98 43.83 151 -2.2% Decrease
87 Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China 44.66 43.33 115 8.1% Increase
88 Indiana University (IU), United States of America (USA) 51.66 42.95 144 -7.3% Decrease
89 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (St. Jude), United States of America (USA) 41.26 42.85 108 15.8% Increase
90 China Agricultural University (CAU), China 39.67 42.80 115 20.3% Increase
91 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 40.97 42.65 118 16.1% Increase
92 RIKEN, Japan 47.45 42.46 192 -0.3% Decrease
93 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 58.86 42.20 156 -20.1% Decrease
94 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 34.58 41.77 130 34.7% Increase
95 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 58.70 41.61 146 -21.0% Decrease
96 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 60.38 41.20 140 -23.9% Decrease
97 Boston University (BU), United States of America (USA) 46.55 40.52 190 -3.0% Decrease
98 The University of Melbourne (UniMelb), Australia 48.85 39.78 247 -9.2% Decrease
99 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 48.76 39.70 236 -9.2% Decrease
100 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 54.10 39.11 122 -19.4% Decrease

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.