New Delhi :  The Weizmann Institute of Science has been ranked eighth globally for research quality in a weighted (proportional) ranking conducted by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) of Leiden University, the Netherlands.

The Weizmann Institute is one of only two institutions outside the U.S. in the top ten (the other is Shandong University, China, which was ranked tenth). In the sub-ranking for Life and Earth Sciences, the Weizmann Institute of Science was ranked fourth in the world.

Along with other scientific achievements, the survey’s findings will be presented in the coming weeks at the Weizmann Institute’s 72nd Annual General Meeting of the International Board, held online for the first time, due to the COVID-19.

The Leiden Ranking is purely quantitative, and does not use subjective surveys. The rankings offers important insights into the scientific performance of over 1000 major universities worldwide. The data encompass the number of the scientific publications by scientists from the various universities and research institutes, the number citations for scientific papers – indicating the quality of the research – as well as information about the size of the institutions.

The current ranking indicates a significant increase in the quality of research at the Weizmann Institute of Science in recent years – from 17th place a little over a decade ago, to eighth in the current ranking.

Other figures from the Leiden 2020 ranking:

• 20% of the papers authored by Institute scientists were ranked in the top 10% for scientific impact.
• 24% of the papers authored by Institute scientists in the Life and Earth Sciences were ranked in the top 10% for scientific impact.
• Over 20% of the papers authored by Institute scientists in the Biomedical and Health Sciences were ranked in the top 10% for scientific impact.
• 2.5% of the scientific papers by Institute scientists were in the top percentile of papers for scientific impact, and 65.8% of them were in the top half of the papers with the greatest impact.
• Between 2015-2018, scientific papers authored by Institute scientists earned 36,129 citations.

The Weizmann Institute of Science has around 300 Indian M.Sc. students and 380 Indian Post-doctoral fellows currently. They have recently signed an MoU with IIT – Delhi for various research and academic collaborations.