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Innovation Ranking

North Data publishes the most innovative companies and research institutions in Germany every year. The number of registered patents, the number and volume of research projects and also trademark registrations are used to calculate the ranking. All of these key figures are indicators of the innovative strength of large and established companies, which includes the ability to manage research projects, to obtain funding for them, to secure a market position through patents and finally to establish new products on the market, which can be seen in the trademark registrations.

Below we present the winners of the year and the top 50 in the table for the two categories of business and research. Finally, we explain the calculation basis and offer the raw data for free download.

All countries
Germany
France
United Kingdom

Winners

Winners Commercial
2025
Rolls-Royce plc Nicoventures Trading Ltd. GKN Aerospace Services Ltd.
Winners Research
2025
University OF Edinburgh CHARITY King's College London UNIVERSITY University OF Southampton

Top 50

Rank Company Patent
applications 		Funded
projects 		Funding
Amount (EUR) 		Trademark
applications 		Score
1
Rolls-Royce plc 227 3 9,694,074 1 77.31
2
Nicoventures Trading Ltd. 148 0 0 87 34.52
3
GKN Aerospace Services Ltd. 1 3 9,475,770 0 31.77
4
Unilever Global IP Ltd. 144 1 0 2 29.42
5
Intelligent Energy Ltd. 4 2 8,204,766 1 27.74
6
Jaguar Land Rover Ltd. 53 1 520,609 168 22.87
7
Imagination Technologies Ltd. 102 0 0 1 20.28
8
Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult Ltd. 1 3 4,491,047 0 16.35
9
Centre for Process Innovation Ltd. 0 11 2,590,780 1 16.33
10
NPL Management Ltd. 2 20 56,042 0 15.57
11
Imperial Tobacco Ltd. 62 0 0 48 15.15
12
British Telecommunications plc 58 3 243,995 3 14.68
13
Johnson Matthey plc 26 5 1,700,124 3 14.34
14
BAE Systems plc 62 1 0 1 13.10
15
Genome Research Ltd. 3 8 1,834,292 0 12.27
16
Airbus Operations Ltd. 58 1 0 0 12.25
17
Quantum Motion Technologies Ltd. 3 3 2,508,908 0 10.61
18
Edwards Ltd. 34 1 354,818 0 8.59
19
Dyson Technology Ltd. 18 0 0 72 7.85
20
ARM Ltd. 31 1 0 14 7.73
21
Micromass UK Ltd. 28 1 289,640 4 7.44
22
Astrazeneca UK Ltd. 0 5 748,396 2 6.19
23
Imperial Tobacco Group Ltd. 25 0 0 19 6.09
24
Alloyed Ltd. 0 3 1,201,014 2 6.09
25
Coopervision International Ltd. 28 0 0 5 5.85
26
Ocado Innovation Ltd. 28 0 0 1 5.61
27
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd. 16 0 0 30 4.96
28
Convatec Ltd. 23 0 0 1 4.62
29
J.C. Bamford Excavators Ltd. 19 0 0 13 4.54
30
Apoha Ltd. 3 2 777,437 0 4.50
31
Tokamak Energy Ltd. 8 1 623,512 1 4.32
32
Innospec Ltd. 16 0 0 11 3.83
33
Latent Drive Ltd. 0 3 426,069 1 3.63
34
T.J.Smith AND Nephew Ltd. 17 0 0 2 3.49
35
United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory Ltd. 3 2 374,278 0 3.25
36
Iglo Foods Group Ltd. 2 0 0 47 3.19
37
Optos plc 14 0 0 4 3.01
38
Pilkington Group Ltd. 13 0 0 7 2.99
39
Perkins Engines Company Ltd. 14 0 0 1 2.83
40
Haleon UK IP Ltd. 1 0 0 43 2.76
41
Ipsen Biopharm Ltd. 5 0 0 29 2.72
42
Subsea 7 Ltd. 12 0 0 4 2.62
43
Siemens Mobility Ltd. 3 2 110,881 2 2.56
44
Cadbury UK Ltd. 0 1 0 29 2.48
45
Multi Packaging Solutions UK Ltd. 11 0 0 3 2.36
46
Tangle Teezer Ltd. 1 0 0 35 2.28
47
Mclaren Automotive Ltd. 10 0 0 3 2.16
48
Infineum International Ltd. 9 0 0 6 2.14
49
Scholl's Wellness Company Ltd. 2 0 0 29 2.12
50
Robert Welch Designs Ltd. 1 0 0 31 2.04
Rank Organisation Patent
applications 		Funded
projects 		Funding
Amount (EUR) 		Trademark
applications 		Score
1
University OF Edinburgh CHARITY 4 94 117,824,439 1 52.81
2
King's College London UNIVERSITY 17 67 62,797,373 0 51.36
3
University OF Southampton 11 76 78,273,803 0 48.03
4
Oxford University Innovation Ltd. 31 0 0 1 47
5
University OF Exeter 2 91 88,492,534 0 39.96
6
THE Chancellor, Masters, AND Scholars OF THE University OF Cambridge UNIVERSITY 1 92 77,022,792 2 39.74
7
University OF Warwick 2 85 85,835,468 0 38.32
8
University OF Leeds 2 80 60,026,910 1 32.95
9
Queen Mary University of London 6 60 44,653,926 0 29.65
10
Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine 0 83 42,109,269 2 27.97
11
THE University OF Manchester 9 48 14,907,406 0 24.52
12
University OF Strathclyde CHARITY 3 36 40,825,902 2 24.49
13
Newcastle University 3 58 41,088,126 0 24.07
14
University of Bristol 1 46 45,107,302 0 20.28
15
Cardiff University 1 57 37,056,798 0 19.98
16
University of Leicester 5 38 22,059,861 0 18.94
17
THE University OF Birmingham 4 38 20,586,424 0 17.11
18
Swansea University 1 23 39,123,484 1 17.08
19
Cranfield University 5 22 20,990,909 0 16.11
20
University OF Sussex 2 25 32,239,368 0 15.10
21
United Kingdom Research AND Innovation 3 17 30,774,025 0 14.90
22
University of Lancaster 1 11 4,925,845 5 14.46
23
The Queen's University of Belfast 6 13 6,221,256 1 14.37
24
The University of Liverpool 6 20 8,254,960 0 14.00
25
University of York 1 25 22,731,446 0 11.23
26
The University of Sheffield 5 13 5,987,788 0 10.86
27
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Newcastle Upon Tyne 2 23 15,636,357 0 10.55
28
Heriot-Watt University 3 18 10,839,161 0 9.99
29
City, University OF London 0 9 997,740 4 9.69
30
Aston University 1 16 4,585,578 2 9.17
31
Brunel University London 1 25 9,439,152 0 7.84
32
Oxford Brookes University 3 6 8,205,594 0 7.40
33
The Francis Crick Institute Ltd. 2 11 10,674,385 0 7.38
34
THE Open University 0 17 9,661,439 1 7.17
35
Northumbria University At 0 14 3,425,469 2 7.11
36
Royal Holloway AND Bedford NEW College 1 20 8,981,243 0 6.93
37
University Of Aberdeen CHARITY 1 15 7,680,492 0 5.80
38
The James Hutton Institute 0 8 1,246,475 2 5.59
39
University OF Plymouth CORPORATION 1 14 7,413,685 0 5.57
40
University of Lancashire 3 4 1,043,593 0 5.26
41
University of Sheffield 2 11 868,939 0 4.88
42
University OF THE West OF England, Bristol UK UNIVERSITY 2 5 909,254 0 3.93
43
Bangor University CHARITY 1 7 4,526,539 0 3.72
44
University of Bradford Union 1 7 2,974,340 0 3.33
45
Institute of Cancer Research 1 4 4,230,689 0 3.17
46
The Pirbright Institute 1 5 3,300,312 0 3.09
47
University of the West of Scotland Charity 1 4 3,772,489 0 3.05
48
The University of Huddersfield 1 7 1,670,401 0 2.99
49
De Montfort University 1 3 912,187 0 2.16

Calculation basis

The following four performance indicators are taken into account when calculating the score:

Indicator Sources Weight
Patents Epobase 45 %
Number of public fundings Fts Ukri Sat Hor 15 %
Total public funding Fts Ukri Sat Hor 30 %
Trademarks Euipotm Euipods 10 %

The highest value achieved for each key figure in the period under review is set as the maximum point value of 100. The two categories Economy and Research are evaluated separately. The period under review was the year 2025.

The performance indicators used are available together with financial figures as Deep Data Finance/Marketing/Tech via the North Data's Data Services.

An evaluation is required and only carried out if the respective organization is entered in the sources with the correct name and registered office. Subsequent changes are not permitted.

Data

Download
Download the data of the respective category in CSV/Excel format.
Commercial Research

Creative Commons License The innovation ranking data is provided by North Data and may be reused under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license.