Based on a list of universities that filed at least 50 patent applications with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) between 2010 and 2015, each candidate university has been evaluated on 10 different metrics. Indicators include the number of granted patents, how many patent applications were filed with global patent offices and local authorities and how often the university's patents were cited by others. The universities were also evaluated in terms of how often their scientific publications were cited by patents and the percentage of articles that featured a co-author from industry.
In the 2017 ranking, German universities account for 23 of the 100 institutions on the list, more than any other country in Europe. Among the top ten most innovative universities, the Technical University of Munich comes in as number four and the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg as number six, followed by the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich ranked at twelve. In collaboration with the universities, BayPAT identifies their promising inventions, supports them in protecting their intellectual property and commercializes the patented inventions for the benefit of the universities and inventors. This also demonstrates the success of the initiative of the Bavarian Research and Innovation Agency (BayFIA), of which BayPAT is a partner agency, to further strengthen Bavarian’s leading position in science and innovation in Germany and Europe.
“We are very pleased to see the important and innovative work of these universities is being acknowledged. They combine substantial research output with quantifiable and promising application in the form of patenting activity. This also speaks for the quality of the work at BayPAT, as we support the Bavarian universities in identifying commercially promising inventions, protecting associated intellectual property and marketing it to ultimately turn inventions into products.” Dr. Robert Phelps, BayPAT’s Chief Executive Officer said.
Ranking can be found at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-reutersrankings-europeanuniversities-idUSKBN17Z09T