Masdar Institute of Science and Technology has topped a prestigious ranking for research excellence, according to the 2015 US News & World Report’s inaugural ‘Best Arab Region Universities’ listing of more than 90 institutions across 16 countries.

The independent, research-driven, graduate-level university, focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, ranked first in the ‘field-weighted citation impact’ list – used to measure the quality of a paper whether published by faculty, post-docs or students. It is one of the most sophisticated indicators of the value of research publishing of a university and enables the comparison of citation impact across subject areas with different publication rates.

His Excellency Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Chairman of Masdar, and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Masdar Institute Board of Trustees, said: “The findings of this report demonstrates the world leading performance of the Masdar Institute’s research base and our growing ability to compete in the global  innovation race. The Masdar Institute’s success is in support of the UAE leadership’s commitment to fostering a culture of innovation and to strengthening the development of our knowledge-driven industries. Research and technology development will be fundamental to achieving the leadership’s economic vision and to ensuring the sustainable growth of our nation.”

The US News & World Report, a leading US-based publisher of education analysis and rankings, unveiled the inaugural ‘Best Arab Region Universities’ rankings at the World Innovation Summit for Education. The Summit brought together decision makers, influential experts and practitioners to explore groundbreaking innovations and take concrete steps to make significant improvements to worldwide education.

In the US News & World Report listing Masdar Institute also ranked second in the ‘percentage of total publications in top 10 percent’ category and third in the ‘percentage of total publications in top 25 percent’ category. These metrics indicate the percentage of a university’s papers that are among the most highly cited papers in the world, by field and publication year. They are a measure of the volume of excellent research produced by a university, independent of the university’s size.

Additionally, Masdar Institute ranked 6th in the ‘energy’ subject area, supporting its position as a leading university for clean energy research. Its overall ranking of 23 firmly places the institute among the Best Arab Region Universities listed.

Dr. Fred Moavenzadeh, President, Masdar Institute, said: “The rankings by a global organization such as the US News & World Report affirm our status among the leading research universities. Importantly, we have earned these high rankings within a few years of inception, having launched our research-focused graduate programs only in 2009. We believe this recognition will further motivate our staff, faculty and students to seek more milestones.”

The US News & World Report rankings mark another notable achievement for Masdar Institute, which has four registered US patents, 42 patent applications pending and 69 invention disclosures. Its faculty, post-docs and students have published over 500 papers in peer-reviewed journals and participated in over 380 conference proceedings. They have also published four book chapters and two full books.

The 2015 US News & World Report rankings include the top Arab region universities overall, based on their academic research performance, as well as separate rankings in 16 subject areas, including energy, computer science, engineering and medicine. The rankings focus on academic research publication data from Elsevier’s Scopus, the world’s largest abstract and citation database, and metrics powered by SciVal Analytics, part of the Elsevier Research Intelligence portfolio. To be included and ranked, an Arab region university must have 400 or more total publications tracked by Scopus.

 

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