ETH Zurich one of the universities with the best innovation ecosystem worldwide

Creating a university environment for entrepreneurship and innovation (E&I) is central to the mission of the Russian Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech). Building on its partnership with MIT, Skoltech’s development will be informed by international best practice, drawing on the experience of universities with a broad range of cultural, economic and socio-political backgrounds.

The Skoltech/MIT Initiative therefore commissioned a benchmarking study to provide a rapid overview of leading university-based technology innovation ecosystems. Conducted in spring/summer 2012, a major aim of the study was to identify the most highly regarded entrepreneurial ecosystems across the world.

The first part of the study was published recently. The primary data source was one-to-one semi-structured interviews with 61 research experts in university entrepreneurship and those with practical experience in developing successful ecosystems. This approach directly tapped the expertise of the comparatively small group of individuals with worldwide knowledge of this field and the metrics through which success can be measured, enabling the Skoltech/MIT Initiative to identify the world’s most highly-regarded university-based ecosystems.

Two groups of experts were targeted for invitation:

1. Highly-cited research experts in the field with professional experience across multiple regions of the world.
2. Individuals with direct experience within a technology innovation ecosystem at a well-regarded university.

The experts came from 20 countries.

The metrics included indicators such as the prominence of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (E&I) in the university’s policies and activities including resourcing levels and, secondly, the extent to which E&I education and training are available to all staff and students.

The result was a ranking of the Top Ten Universities worldwide which the experts identified as having created/supported the world’s most successful technology innovation ecosystems. The ranking in detail:

1. MIT, US
2. Stanford University, US
3. University of Cambridge, UK
4. Imperial College London, UK
5. University of Oxford UK
6. Technion, Israel
7. UC San Diego, US
8. UC Berkeley, US
9. ETH Zurich, Switzerland
10. NUS, Singapore

A summary of the study can be downloaded on the bottom of this page.