2021 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in biological sciences

The 2021 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

Table criteria

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Position Institution Share 2019 Share 2020 Count 2020 Change in Share 2019–2020
1 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 258.75 248.67 674
-3.9%
2 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 211.39 247.48 753
17.1%
3 Max Planck Society, Germany 183.81 183.31 554
-0.3%
4 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 133.50 153.72 359
15.1%
5 National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States of America (USA) 118.68 119.62 339
0.8%
6 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 117.14 112.82 803
-3.7%
7 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 100.86 105.68 318
4.8%
8 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 84.48 95.33 320
12.8%
9 University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), United States of America (USA) 81.61 92.81 247
13.7%
10 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 68.89 91.16 217
32.3%
11 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 87.79 90.10 379
2.6%
12 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 88.12 85.55 222
-2.9%
13 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 90.32 83.34 223
-7.7%
14 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 62.17 80.97 398
30.2%
15 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 77.78 80.30 199
3.2%
16 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 69.57 73.00 226
4.9%
17 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 79.57 71.09 198
-10.7%
18 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 77.94 69.70 211
-10.6%
19 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 92.45 69.60 238
-24.7%
20 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 76.54 69.28 195
-9.5%
21 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 79.59 67.34 227
-15.4%
22 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 60.00 65.72 217
9.5%
23 Duke University, United States of America (USA) 72.11 64.51 187
-10.5%
24 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 49.78 61.62 160
23.8%
25 New York University (NYU), United States of America (USA) 54.29 60.99 163
12.4%
26 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 58.21 60.15 172
3.3%
27 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 51.03 59.78 187
17.1%
28 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 59.22 56.68 130
-4.3%
29 Peking University (PKU), China 57.26 55.80 218
-2.6%
30 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 42.66 54.74 127
28.3%
31 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 58.83 53.57 148
-8.9%
32 Tsinghua University, China 59.38 51.59 198
-13.1%
33 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 48.65 50.01 342
2.8%
34 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 51.14 49.39 117
-3.4%
35 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 57.81 49.26 148
-14.8%
36 The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia 30.64 47.85 147
56.2%
37 The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center), United States of America (USA) 51.93 47.80 98
-8.0%
38 Vanderbilt University (VU), United States of America (USA) 39.32 45.90 128
16.7%
39 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 52.62 45.39 170
-13.7%
40 The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK) 40.16 44.26 167
10.2%
41 University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), United States of America (USA) 42.27 44.13 116
4.4%
42 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 45.07 43.54 180
-3.4%
43 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 39.27 43.42 105
10.6%
44 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 48.88 43.40 222
-11.2%
45 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), United States of America (USA) 51.40 41.94 151
-18.4%
46 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), United Kingdom (UK) 32.70 41.89 157
28.1%
47 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 27.37 41.04 148
49.9%
48 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 44.18 40.88 146
-7.5%
49 Nanjing University (NJU), China 45.18 40.01 87
-11.4%
50 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 28.98 39.91 97
37.7%
51 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 34.34 38.95 164
13.4%
52 McGill University, Canada 41.24 38.39 113
-6.9%
53 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 31.16 37.97 97
21.9%
54 Leibniz Association, Germany 40.19 37.74 217
-6.1%
55 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 41.17 37.70 81
-8.4%
56 National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), France 38.54 36.57 380
-5.1%
57 RIKEN, Japan 26.13 35.65 156
36.4%
58 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 31.02 35.11 110
13.2%
59 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 25.29 35.04 131
38.6%
60 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 41.43 35.03 89
-15.4%
61 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 34.21 34.39 153
0.5%
62 The Rockefeller University, United States of America (USA) 43.38 34.24 99
-21.1%
63 Hunan University (HNU), China 26.33 33.81 47
28.4%
64 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), United States of America (USA) 33.11 33.72 104
1.9%
65 The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada 50.62 33.52 105
-33.8%
66 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 29.61 33.43 108
12.9%
67 The University of Utah (Utah), United States of America (USA) 26.73 32.75 86
22.5%
68 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 25.32 32.66 120
29.0%
69 University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK) 28.24 32.42 96
14.8%
70 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 28.67 31.97 70
11.5%
71 University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA) 18.31 31.63 83
72.7%
72 Emory University, United States of America (USA) 28.91 31.41 105
8.7%
73 Fudan University, China 35.77 31.36 99
-12.3%
74 European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Germany 27.71 31.13 144
12.3%
75 University of Southern California (USC), United States of America (USA) 38.34 30.45 115
-20.6%
76 University of Basel (UB), Switzerland 28.44 29.75 93
4.6%
77 Kyoto University, Japan 26.18 29.62 99
13.1%
78 Wuhan University (WHU), China 25.40 29.60 62
16.5%
79 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 26.81 29.51 118
10.1%
80 Indiana University (IU), United States of America (USA) 30.73 29.45 85
-4.1%
81 The University of Georgia (UGA), United States of America (USA) 22.83 29.12 71
27.5%
82 The University of Osaka (UOsaka), Japan 22.43 29.10 88
29.7%
83 Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), United States of America (USA) 28.80 28.72 135
-0.3%
84 Nagoya University, Japan 17.02 28.54 73
67.7%
85 University of California, Riverside (UCR), United States of America (USA) 26.82 28.05 68
4.6%
86 Texas A&M University (TAMU), United States of America (USA) 18.37 27.93 73
52.0%
87 Karolinska Institute (KI), Sweden 26.97 27.53 143
2.1%
88 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 28.82 26.84 77
-6.9%
89 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 21.37 26.47 79
23.8%
90 University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan Medical School), United States of America (USA) 29.12 26.39 79
-9.3%
91 Scripps Research, United States of America (USA) 33.81 26.39 67
-21.9%
92 Academia Sinica, Taiwan 26.38 26.32 69
-0.2%
93 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 21.54 26.25 124
21.9%
94 The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK) 23.12 26.04 79
12.6%
95 Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), China 29.03 25.16 79
-13.3%
96 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 15.54 24.96 69
60.6%
97 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 35.17 24.71 72
-29.7%
98 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 19.61 24.67 111
25.9%
99 University of Münster (WWU), Germany 15.73 24.42 61
55.2%
100 Michigan State University (MSU), United States of America (USA) 20.57 24.34 80
18.4%
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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/territory’s publication output in 82 high-quality natural science publications. The publications were chosen by an independent group of researchers. The list is reviewed periodically and journals may be removed or added.
  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 the data in the above table is published 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 research leaders tables.

Research Leaders tables from previous years are also updated annually to reflect any changes to the database. This means rankings and metrics may differ from the table when first released.


Numerical information only (in the tables above) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International.