Once again the URV has taken top spot in Spain regarding scientific leadership with excellence, according to a report by the Knowledge and Development Foundation which analyses Spanish universities and their contribution to economic and social development. The URV heads this indicator in both overall terms and in the specific areas of Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, Agricultural Science, Biology and Computer Sciences

On 6 July the Knowledge and Growth Foundation presented its annual report on the contribution made by universities to development. The report contains a chapter which analysed the scientific production of Spanish universities and research institutions using indicators that rank universities on the basis of the number of studies that they published during the 2009-2013 period. The SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR), which are based on Scopus data for this period, are used to analyse performance with regard to four indicators: scientific production (the quantity of articles published), the normalised impact (which measures the relation between the average scientific impact of an institution and the global average), the percentage of publications in the first quartile (which indicates that the journals correspond to the top 25% of publications with the highest impact factor), and leadership with excellence (the number of studies published in the top 10% most cited studies in which the institution has led research.

This is the indicator in which the URV is best placed. In fact, for excellence with leadership, the URV is number one in Spain out of the 59 institutions analysed, with a score of 11.52%, higher than the global average of 10%. This indicator not only shows the high visibility of the URV’s scientific production, but also the capacity and initiative of its researchers.

The URV occupies first position in four of the six areas analysed for this indicator, namely, Engineering (17.32), Physics and Astronomy (11.20), Agricultural Science and Biology (11.81) and Computer Sciences (13.20). In the two remaining areas, Medicine and Biochemistry, and Genetics and Molecular Biology, the URV is occupies third place in Spain (6.65 and 7.06 respectively).

Regarding the normalised impact index, which refers to the number of citations of scientific articles, the UPF (1.68) and the UB (1.56) take the top two spots ahead of the UAB (1.50), which is in third place and just one decimal point ahead of the URV (1.49). However, even in this indicator the URV stood out in the areas of Engineering (in first position with 2.87), Agricultural Science and Biology (in second position with 1.69) and in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (in third position with 1.35).

The indicators analysed in the section on scientific production show that the URV is one of the three Spanish universities that most frequently appear in the top places for the highest number of indicators. In fact, the University appears in the top three more times (12 in total) than any other university except for the UB and the UPF.

The report can be downloaded here (the data on scientific production can be found in Chapter 5: Scientific production indicators of the Spanish universities and research institutions). This study also analyses university demand and course offers, research, enterprise culture and business.