The University of Edinburgh has again been ranked among the world’s top universities by The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings for its contribution to the UN SDGs, maintaining 5th place globally for Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings assess the social, environmental and economic impact of universities, assessing University performance against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The University achieved an overall ranking of 52nd, with an overall score of 91.2.
Leaders in innovation
The University performed particularly strongly in SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, scoring 99.9 out of 100 and maintaining fifth place globally for the second year running. This reflects the University’s ongoing efforts to support startups, foster collaborative partnerships, and develop research income from industry.
Last year over 110 student and staff startups and spinouts were supported through Edinburgh Innovations (EI), attracting £107m of investment. Industrial and translational research projects brought in £72.4m of funding.
As showcased in our Discovery campaigns, EI is leading work to translate the University’s academic expertise into innovative, industry-led solutions for the challenges we face today in our priority domains of climate and sustainability, data for good and future health and care.
Dr George Baxter, CEO of EI (pictured above), said:
To have maintained our ranking at fifth globally for SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure is a fantastic recognition of the continued growing culture of innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Edinburgh, which has sustainability at its core.
Our excellent team at EI supports students and academics – from protecting their intellectual property, to partnering with industry on short or long projects, to forming a company – to make ideas work for a better world. ”
About the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings
A total of 1,591 universities participated in the rankings this year, a 13% increase compared to the previous year. This reflects the continued growth of the rankings and increasing efforts across the higher education sector to measure sustainability performance.
Each university’s overall score is generated from the score for SDG 17, plus their scores for the three top performing SDGs for which they provided data.
An enduring commitment to sustainability
The University of Edinburgh's enduring commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals is reflected in the University placing within the top 25% of universities for overall score in 13 of the 14 Sustainable Development Goals.
The University’s overall ranking and score was based on the University’s efforts across research, stewardship, outreach and teaching across the following Sustainable Development Goals.
The University was ranked 4th in the world in the QS World University Rankings for Sustainability last year.
