The University of Queensland is number one in Australia in the Nature Index of high-quality research outputs, maintaining the coveted position in the annual table.
UQ continued its climb up the global Nature rankings, to be 79th in the world from all research institutions, up from 110th last year.
President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Høj said the University’s improved position in a fiercely competitive international environment was an outstanding result.
“Our commitment to high quality, high impact research is unwavering and the Nature Index ranking is an important validation of these efforts,” Professor Høj said.
“Researchers across our faculties and institutes are striving to improve health, the environment and society.
“There is a network of staff and science infrastructure that supports their efforts, and this result is evidence of the hard work and dedication of a massive team.”
Professor Peter Høj said the Nature ranking included all types of global research institutes including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck Institute and the French National Centre for Scientific Research.
UQ ranks 69th in the world when excluding non-academic institutions, up from 91st in 2018.
“In addition to being number one in Australia overall, UQ was also the top-ranked institution for research in the areas of Earth and Environment, and Life Sciences,” he said.
“These are among the areas where we can make a profound difference to peoples’ lives, to the world around us, and how we equip our children for the future.
“Just last week, researchers from our Degnan laboratory published research in Nature that upended biologists’ century-old understanding of the evolutionary history of animals.
“The previous day, a team at our Institute for Molecular Bioscience reported on research identifying a possible drug target for chronic liver disease.”
The release of the Nature Index closely followed UQ’s improved top 50 results in two other global rankings.
UQ moved to 47th in the 2020 QS World University Rankings, and jumped to 40th – its highest-ever position – in National Taiwan University’s Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities.
“These results will make UQ even more attractive to the best and brightest researchers and students and help us draw top-tier, quality staff from around the world,” Professor Høj said.