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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. Unilever Global IP Ltd.
Winners Research
2025
King's College London UNIVERSITY University of Southampton Oxford University Innovation Ltd.

Top 50

Rank Company Patent
applications 		Funded
projects 		Funding
Amount (EUR) 		Trademark
applications 		Score
1
Rolls-Royce plc 226 7 44,990,880 1 78.94
2
Nicoventures Trading Ltd. 148 0 0 87 33.82
3
Unilever Global IP Ltd. 146 0 0 2 29.17
4
Jaguar Land Rover Ltd. 55 5 7,650,249 200 28.83
5
Imagination Technologies Ltd. 109 0 0 1 21.75
6
Airbus Operations Ltd. 72 2 1,779,750 0 16.63
7
NPL Management Ltd. 2 27 468,022 0 15.71
8
Imperial Tobacco Ltd. 64 0 0 48 15.14
9
Glory Ltd. 71 0 0 2 14.24
10
British Telecommunications plc 58 3 243,995 3 13.53
11
BAE Systems plc 64 1 0 1 13.35
12
Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult Ltd. 1 7 8,963,269 0 10.06
13
Johnson Matthey plc 29 5 1,292,911 3 9.56
14
GKN Aerospace Services Ltd. 1 3 9,475,770 0 8.18
15
Centre for Process Innovation Ltd. 0 11 2,590,780 1 7.89
16
Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Ltd. 32 0 0 30 7.87
17
Intelligent Energy Ltd. 4 2 8,204,766 1 7.43
18
ARM Ltd. 31 1 0 14 7.43
19
Edwards Ltd. 33 1 354,818 0 7.36
20
Dyson Technology Ltd. 18 0 0 73 7.23
21
Micromass UK Ltd. 35 0 0 4 7.17
22
Imperial Tobacco Group Ltd. 25 0 0 24 6.18
23
Genome Research Ltd. 1 8 1,834,292 0 5.87
24
Coopervision International Ltd. 28 0 0 5 5.83
25
Ocado Innovation Ltd. 28 0 0 1 5.63
26
J.C. Bamford Excavators Ltd. 23 0 0 13 5.23
27
Convatec Ltd. 26 0 0 1 5.23
28
Bentley Motors Ltd. 1 0 0 96 5.00
29
Renishaw plc 22 1 0 0 4.94
30
Astrazeneca UK Ltd. 0 7 748,396 2 4.49
31
Mclaren Automotive Ltd. 21 0 0 3 4.33
32
Evolito Ltd. 3 1 4,307,999 0 4.03
33
Quantum Motion Technologies Ltd. 3 3 2,508,908 0 3.94
34
Innospec Ltd. 16 0 0 11 3.74
35
T.J.Smith and Nephew Ltd. 15 0 0 4 3.19
36
Siemens Mobility Ltd. 9 2 110,881 2 3.08
37
Perkins Engines Company Ltd. 15 0 0 1 3.04
38
Optos plc 14 0 0 4 2.99
39
Pilkington Group Ltd. 13 0 0 7 2.94
40
Kohler Mira Ltd. 13 0 0 7 2.94
41
Nomad Foods Europe Ltd. 2 0 0 48 2.80
42
Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies Ltd. 9 1 407,212 0 2.62
43
Subsea 7 Ltd. 12 0 0 4 2.59
44
Haleon UK IP Ltd. 2 0 0 43 2.55
45
Alloyed Ltd. 0 3 1,201,014 1 2.52
46
Assa Abloy Ltd. 8 0 0 18 2.49
47
Ipsen Biopharm Ltd. 5 0 0 29 2.45
48
Qinetiq Ltd. 6 2 0 0 2.31
49
Apoha Ltd. 3 2 777,437 0 2.23
50
Mbda UK Ltd. 9 0 0 6 2.09
Rank Organisation Patent
applications 		Funded
projects 		Funding
Amount (EUR) 		Trademark
applications 		Score
1
King's College London UNIVERSITY 17 92 86,696,407 0 64.95
2
University of Southampton 11 95 98,246,981 0 60.22
3
Oxford University Innovation Ltd. 31 0 0 1 47
4
University of Leeds 2 100 83,648,754 1 45.45
5
THE University OF Cambridge 1 95 79,907,700 2 44.10
6
Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine 0 87 45,837,265 2 31.05
7
The University of Manchester 8 36 30,602,593 0 26.36
8
The University of Birmingham 4 38 36,834,723 0 22.75
9
Swansea University 1 30 47,618,180 1 22.49
10
United Kingdom Research AND Innovation 3 18 43,106,627 0 20.22
11
University of Warwick 2 40 31,478,592 0 18.52
12
Queen Mary University of London 7 21 13,217,408 0 17.35
13
University of Bristol 1 38 32,913,798 0 17.20
14
Aston University 1 38 15,288,961 2 15.82
15
University of Lancaster 1 12 5,575,413 5 14.95
16
The Queen's University of Belfast 6 13 6,221,256 1 14.56
17
The University of Liverpool 6 18 7,870,464 0 13.81
18
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 1 23 26,546,533 0 13.01
19
University OF Exeter 2 26 17,220,234 0 12.06
20
University of Strathclyde 2 17 7,983,522 2 11.89
21
Cranfield University 7 5 2,496,387 0 11.67
22
University of York 1 23 21,343,204 0 11.42
23
University of Leicester 5 18 4,706,855 0 11.40
24
THE University OF Sheffield 5 10 5,737,550 0 10.51
25
University OF Edinburgh CHARITY 1 17 14,560,938 1 10.45
26
City St George's, University of London 0 10 549,859 4 9.67
27
The Francis Crick Institute Ltd. 2 16 13,642,825 0 9.47
28
Queen Mary University of London 2 18 12,005,772 0 9.27
29
Newcastle University 2 15 11,019,697 0 8.52
30
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Newcastle Upon Tyne 1 19 11,435,506 0 7.79
31
Cardiff University 1 18 11,198,596 0 7.57
32
Heriot-Watt University 3 11 4,043,316 0 7.24
33
The Open University 0 16 9,217,832 1 7.21
34
University OF Northumbria AT Newcastle HIGHER EDUCATION CORPORATION 0 10 5,008,412 2 7.03
35
University OF Surrey Company Inc. by Roya Charter (England/Wale 2 10 6,042,876 0 6.25
36
University OF Sussex 2 8 4,477,024 0 5.47
37
University of Durham 1 11 7,409,694 0 5.36
38
University of Lancashire 3 4 1,043,593 0 5.27
39
University OF THE West OF England, Bristol UK UNIVERSITY 2 11 2,216,756 0 5.23
40
Oxford Brookes University 3 2 723,774 0 4.88
41
Brunel University London 1 14 4,023,531 0 4.78
42
Bangor University 1 7 4,526,539 0 3.88
43
University OF Plymouth CORPORATION 1 7 4,139,024 0 3.77
44
The Pirbright Institute 1 4 2,441,804 0 2.80
45
Royal Holloway and Bedford New College 1 5 1,482,960 0 2.65
46
University of Bradford Union 1 5 1,258,967 0 2.59

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.