Impact Rankings 2024: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9) Methodology

The Impact Rankings 2024, which will be published on 12 June, evaluate universities’ contributions to fostering innovation and supporting industry. This includes research on industry and innovation, the number of patents, spin-off companies, and research income from industry.

Metrics

Research on Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (11.6%)

• Measures research volume relevant to industry, innovation, and infrastructure.
• Data sourced from Elsevier’s Scopus dataset (2018-2022), normalised using Z-scoring.

Patents Citing University Research (15.4%)

• Counts patents citing university research.
• Data from Elsevier, covering patents published between 2018 and 2022, sourced from major patent offices, normalised using Z-scoring.

University Spin-offs (34.6%)

• Counts registered companies exploiting university-originated intellectual property, established since 1 January 2000, and still active for at least three years.
• Data provided by universities, normalised using Z-scoring.

Research Income from Industry (38.4%)

• Measures research income from industry, adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), and scaled against academic staff numbers.
• Data subject-weighted across STEM, medicine, and arts/humanities/social sciences, normalised using Z-scoring.

Evidence Requirements

Universities must provide evidence for their claims regarding policies and initiatives. Evidence is evaluated against set criteria, with credit given for public availability. These metrics are generally not size-normalised.

Time Frame

Data generally refer to the closest academic year to January-December 2022. Specific date ranges are detailed in the full methodology document.

Exclusions

Any university teaching at undergraduate or postgraduate level can participate. THE may exclude institutions that falsify data or are not in good standing.

Data Collection

Institutions must provide and approve their data. Missing data points are entered as zero.