For the second year in a row, the Weizmann Institute of Science was ranked amongst the world’s top ten research institutions! 

Specifically, the Institute was ranked eighth for research quality by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) of Leiden University, the Netherlands (“Leiden Ranking”). It is also one of only two institutions outside the United States in the top ten (the other is the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, ranking ninth). Other institutions in the top ten include Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Berkeley, Rockefeller, MIT, and Caltech. 

The Leiden Ranking is purely quantitative, and does not use subjective surveys. The data encompass the number of scientific publications by scientists from the various universities and research institutes, the number of 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 this year.

Other figures from the 2021 Leiden Ranking include:

• 19% of the papers authored by Weizmann Institute scientists were ranked in the top 10% for scientific impact.
• Over 20% of the papers authored by Weizmann Institute scientists in the Biomedical and Health Sciences were ranked in the top 10% for scientific impact.
• 2.5% of the scientific papers by Weizmann Institute scientists were in the top percentile of papers for scientific impact, and 65% of them were in the top half of the papers with the greatest impact.
• Between 2016 and 2019 (the years covered by the survey), scientific papers authored by Weizmann Institute scientists earned 86,273 citations.

In addition to Leiden, Weizmann was ranked among the top 25 research institutes and universities in the world in two main categories by U-Multirank 2021, an initiative of the European Commission. This organization named the Weizmann Institute a Global Top 25 performer in two areas: Top Cited Publications and Patents Awarded. 

U-Multirank, published annually since 2014, uses all of the information available about hundreds of institutions worldwide, and analyzes it according to numerous variables. The ranking is intended to promote transparency and to aid students in applying to universities for studies and research.