By David Ewalt
June 14 (Reuters) - At first glance, the most innovativeuniversities in Europe don't appear to have much in common. Someare Catholic schools, some are secular, others are state-run andsome are private. One is 920 years old. Another has been anindependent institution for less than a decade. They'rescattered across the continent, some in large cities, others inrural areas.
The single unifier: Nearly all of them emphasize practicalresearch and applied science, as opposed to pure academics.Technical universities and colleges dominate Reuters' first-everranking of Europe's top 100 innovative universities, a list thatidentifies the educational institutions that are doing the mostto advance science, invent new technologies, and help drive theglobal economy.
The most innovative university in Europe is KU Leuven, aDutch-speaking school based in Belgium's Flanders region.Founded in 1425 by Pope Martin V, it's the world oldest Catholicuniversity, but its instruction isn't limited to theology. KU'smodern mission is comprehensive and advanced scientificresearch. Open to students of all faiths, it operatesautonomously from the Church, and maintains one of the largestindependent research and development organizations on the planet-in fiscal 2014, research spending exceeded 426 million euros.
KU Leuven earned its first-place rank, in part, by churningout a high volume of influential inventions. Its researcherssubmit more patents than almost any other university in Europe,and outside researchers frequently cite KU Leuven inventions intheir own patent applications.
Those are key criteria in the Reuters ranking of Europe'sMost Innovative Universities, which was compiled in partnershipwith the Intellectual Property & Science division of ThomsonReuters.
Some of the top-rated universities on the list were createdwhen larger institutions spun out their technical departments.Imperial College London (ranked #2) was formerly The ImperialCollege of Science, Technology and Medicine, part of theUniversity of London. Imperial became fully independent in July2007, and is now a public research university serving more than 16,000 students from more than 125 countries. It alsooutperforms its parent - the University of London is ranked #30on the Europe Top 100.
Similarly, Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale deLausanne took its current form in 1968, when it was spun out ofthe University of Lausanne. Today EPFL is a federal instituteand is obliged to grant admission to every Swiss high-schoolgraduate.
Other top-ranked institutions were specifically created toserve as centers of innovation. Germany's Technical Universityof Munich (#5) was founded in 1868 by King Ludwig II of Bavaria,and tasked with driving the kingdom's transition from anagricultural to an industrial state. Today the school has 37,000students enrolled across its three locations in Munich,Freising-Weihenstephan and Garching. Thirteen TUM professors andalumni have won a Nobel Prize since 1927, including RudolfMössbauer (physics, 1961) and Ernst Otto Fischer (chemistry,1973).
German universities - technical and otherwise - account for24 of the 100 most innovative universities in Europe, more thanany other country. The United Kingdom comes in second with 17institutions on the list, including the two oldest universitiesin the English-speaking world: The University of Cambridge,ranked #3, and the University of Oxford, ranked #8. Many ofhistory's greatest scholars have studied or taught at"Oxbridge," including Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and AlanTuring (Cambridge); and Roger Bacon, Robert Hooke and EdmundHalley (Oxford).
The Republic of Ireland only has three schools on the entirelist, but with a population under 5 million people, it can boastmore top 100 innovative universities per capita than any othercountry in Europe. Trinity College Dublin, ranked #48, isIreland's highest-ranked university. Founded in 1592 by QueenElizabeth I and modeled on Oxford and Cambridge, today Trinityis notable for holding a higher percentage of cited patents inits portfolio than any other university in Europe's top 100-more evidence of Ireland's outsized impact on global researchand development.
On a regional basis, Western Europe dominates the list, with60 universities in the top 100. Northern Europe comes in adistant second, with 24; Southern Europe has 15. Eastern Europeonly has a single university on the list, Poland's JagiellonianUniversity, ranked #92. And only five universities on the listare located in countries that are not members of the EuropeanUnion - four in Switzerland, and one in Norway (University ofOslo, #41). Notable absences from the top 100 include anyuniversities in Russia or Turkey, two of Europe's most populouscountries; or any universities in small but wealthy Sweden orFinland.
To compile its ranking of Europe's most innovativeuniversities, the IP & Science division of Thomson Reuters beganby identifying more than 600 global organizations -includingeducational institutions, nonprofit charities, andgovernment-funded labs- that publish the most academic research.Then they evaluated each candidate on 10 different metrics,focusing on academic papers (which indicate basic research) andpatent filings (which point to an institution's ability to applyresearch and commercialize its discoveries). Finally, theytrimmed the list so that it only included European universities,and then ranked them based on their performance. Click here forthe full methodology.
Since the rankings measure innovation on an institutionallevel, it may overlook particularly innovative departments orprograms; a university might rank low for overall innovation,but still operate one of the most innovative biotechnology labsin the world, for instance. But whether they rank in the top 10or somewhere in the 90s, all the universities ranked in theEurope Top 100 count among the world's best. They produceoriginal research, create useful technology and stimulate theglobal economy. (Editing by Arlyn Gajilan and Alessandra Rafferty)