2016 Research & Innovation Annual Report
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Prestigious national and international honours by U of T researchers and scholars are important benchmarks of excellence. U of T researchers continue to win a dominant share of prestigious honours, and the remarkable impact of our researchers is reflected across a diverse set of global rankings: U of T typically ranks 1st among Canadian universities in a broad range of disciplines, and is among the world’s top research- and innovation-intensive institutions.

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Each ranking system has its own provenance and methodology, including different metrics and how they are weighted:
  1. 1. National Taiwan University Ranking (NTU) Based on Web of Science™ bibliometric measures including publication and citation counts, average citations per publication, h-index, highly cited publications and articles in high-impact journals [Methodology].
  2. 2. US News Best Global Universities Begun in 2014. Based on a series of Web of Science™ bibliometric measures, reputational surveys, and counts of PhDs awarded [Methodology].
  3. 3. Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) Based on reputational surveys, internationalization measures, average class size and metrics normalized over faculty count: PhDs awarded, publications, citations, overall institutional income and research income from all sources and industry. Bibliometric measures were from the Web of Science™ until 2014 and are now from Scopus™ [Methodology].
  4. 4. Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) Conducted by researchers at the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University; based on faculty and alumni who are Nobel Prize and Fields medal winners, researchers named to the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited list and Web of Science™ bibliometric measures including articles counts and additional weight given to articles in Science and Nature [Methodology].
  5. 5. QS World University Ranking (QS)* Based on citations normalized by faculty count, reputational surveys, average class size and internationalization. A significant methodological change was implemented with the 2015 QS overall ranking in that the citations per faculty score was segmented according to the rankings’ five faculty area as a way to equalize the influence of each [Methodology].
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Data sources: each ranking organization’s website: QS, ARWU, THE and NTU. * QS did not release field rankings in 2016.

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Data sources: Each ranking organization’s website: QS, NTU, and US News Best Global Universities. Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) did not release its regular subject rankings in 2016.

Heat Matrix Showing Rank on Publications in the
Top 10% Most Highly Cited (2011-2015)



Top 20 Institutions Worldwide



U15 Institutions (Not included in Top 20)

Note
Data source: Queried from InCites (InCites dataset) updated Jan. 14, 2017 with Web of Science™ content indexed through Dec. 2, 2016. Analysis by the University of Toronto
  • The top 20 universities and the vertical sorting is based on the sum of the ranks across the 22 fields (where the lowest sum represents the top institution).
  • The heat scale shading is a on a three colour scale with the median (50th percentile) as the middle colour and represents the university's publications in the top 10% relative to all other universities publishing within that category (column).
  • Twenty one of the fields are from the Essential Science Indicators schema; Arts & Humanities is from the GIPP schema.
  • Document type limited to articles, review articles and book chapters with at least one author affiliated with a university.
  • Years limited to 2011 to 2015
  • Not shown, top university based on documents in the top 10% cited in Agriculture: Wageningen University and Research Center; Chemistry: Nanyang Technological University; Computer Science: Tsinghua University; Engineering: Tsinghua University; Geoscience: University of Colorado Boulder; Materials Science: Nanyang Technological University; Mathematics: King Abdulaziz University; Physics: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Plant and Animal Science: University of California Davis; Space Science: California Institute of Technology.
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Data sources: VPRI, based on individual agency website. Updated December 2016. Changes to names of prestigious honours (*):

  • the National Academy of Medicine is the new name for the membership-granting branch of the US Institute of Medicine, effective April 2015.

U of T research and innovation is a $1.2 billion-a-year enterprise. Our researchers and innovators are successful in securing funds from a rich diversity of sources including the federal and provincial governments, the not-for-profit sector, private-sector partnerships, and national and international research and philanthropic foundations, allowing them to continue generating the knowledge and tools that are needed to address the most pressing issues confronting humanity.

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Data sources: VPRI. Represents funds awarded for use in 2015-16. Based on government fiscal year, April to March. Dollars shown in captions are in millions. The federal granting agencies include the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), and four related programs: the Canada Research Chairs program (CRCs), Canada Excellence Research Chairs program (CERCs), the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) and the Research Support Fund (RSF).

  • Tri-Agency Funding
  • CIHR Funding
  • NSERC Funding
  • SHHRC Funding

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Data sources: CIHR Expenditures by University and Program Category 2015-16 report, NSERC Awards Database, and SSHRC Awards Search Engine. Based on funds awarded for use during government fiscal year, April to March. Excluding funding for the Networks of Centres of Excellence nodes (NCE), the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program, the Canada Research Excellence Chairs (CERC) program, the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) program and the Research Support Fund (RSF). The Canadian Microelectronics Corporation (NSERC funding held at Queen's) and the Canadian Light Source (NSERC funding held at U. Saskatchewan) are excluded. For the national total, only funding to Canadian colleges and universities, and their affiliates, is counted.

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Data source: VPRI. Based on government fiscal year, April to March. Total funding shared between on-campus (50.3%) and partner hospitals (49.7%)

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Data source: CFI website, projects funded database updated January 16, 2017. Based on government fiscal year, April to March. National projects excluded. Partner hospitals and affiliates data are counted with each university.

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Data source: VPRI. Based on government U of T fiscal year, May to April.

Research that feeds innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization is thriving at U of T. In all sectors and across all of our campuses, our faculty and students are turning ideas into products, services, jobs, and companies that are contributing to the Canadian economy and improving lives around the world. We are a North American leader in the number of new research-based startups, in the number of new invention disclosures, and in the number of new licenses and options. And since 2010, the number of patent applications filed per year by the U of T has nearly doubled.

  • New Start-up
    Companies Created
  • New Invention
    Disclosures
  • New Licenses
    and Options
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Data source: Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). Universities reporting as systems are excluded. U of T includes partner hospitals.

The Division of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation supports U of T as a world-leading public research- and innovation-intensive university by creating an environment that enables our researchers, scholars and learners to do what they do best: advance understanding and apply new knowledge. We support, foster and promote the research and innovation activities of our faculty and students across our three campuses, through work with our affiliated hospitals and external agencies, and with our strategic partners.

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Note: *Includes companies based on U of T intellectual property (IP) as well as companies not based on U of T IP but supported by U of T's campus linked accelerators (CLAs).
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