The University of Toronto is among the world's top 10 universities powering global innovation in critical areas like technology, health care, sustainability and economic development, according to international data analytics company Clarivate.
For its latest report, The top 50 universities powering global innovation, Clarivate ranked universities on their impact on commercial innovation, as measured by how often they were cited in patents granted to the world's most innovative companies and organizations.
U of T was ranked 10th in the world, seventh among public universities and fifth among North American public universities. The only other Canadian university to appear in the ranking was the University of British Columbia at 49th.
"The University of Toronto prides itself on being one of the world's most innovative, top-ranked research institutions, working to address the most pressing challenges of the day," said Leah Cowen, U of T's vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.
"This would not be possible without U of T's many close relationships with other research organizations and corporate partners, which share our commitment to translating innovative ideas into practical solutions in areas of vital importance to Canada and the world."
For its 2025 report, Clarivate examined the number of times academic research papers involving a university were cited in patents for inventions by organizations featured in Clarivate's annual Top 100 Global Innovators report.
The Top 100 Global Innovators report measures the quality, potency and impact of ideas generated by leading organizations in technology research and innovation. The ranking utilizes a comparative analysis of global invention data to assess the strength of every patented idea, using measures tied directly to their innovative power.
To be considered for the universities' ranking, organizations must have filed more than 500 inventions since 2000 and been granted patents for more than 100 unique inventions between 2018 and 2022.
Clarivate's analysis showed U of T was cited 2,476 times by these leading organizations, including 1,722 unique citing inventions and 1,352 unique citing papers.
In 2023, Clarivate ranked U of T 10th globally in a list of most innovative research organizations. However, the 2023 ranking employed a different methodology - it did not focus on citations in patents - and included companies such as Microsoft and Alphabet (Google's parent), as well as national academies such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences and research institutes such as France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).
U of T also continues to be the highest-ranked Canadian university and one of the top-ranked public universities in the five most closely watched international rankings: Times Higher Education's World University Rankings, QS World University Rankings, ShanghaiRanking Consultancy's Academic Ranking of World Universities, U.S. News & World Report's Best Global Universities and National Taiwan University World University Rankings.
