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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
Airbus Operations SAS Thales SA Stellantis Auto SAS
Winners Research
2025
Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale

Top 50

Rank Company Patent
applications 		Funded
projects 		Funding
Amount (EUR) 		Trademark
applications 		Score
1
Airbus Operations SAS 185 11 63,508,223 0 73.08
2
Thales SA 199 13 7,096,462 1 51.06
3
Stellantis Auto SAS 274 0 0 16 45.41
4
L'air Liquide sa Pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude SA 226 0 0 6 37.27
5
Renault SAS 184 1 0 85 33.55
6
L'Oreal SA 143 0 0 391 33.49
7
Schneider Electric Industries SAS 196 0 0 36 33.11
8
Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin SCA 187 0 0 65 32.37
9
Orange SA 166 2 1,445,610 2 30.30
10
Airbus SAS 144 4 1,226,875 12 29.15
11
SEB SA 121 0 0 5 20.00
12
Sanofi SA 103 0 0 31 17.71
13
Safran Electrical & Power SAS 36 4 14,264,417 0 17.27
14
Bull SAS 61 5 2,133,114 0 16.80
15
Ampere SAS 83 2 171,069 0 16.02
16
Safran SA 90 0 0 2 14.83
17
Safran Aircraft Engines SAS 2 2 24,806,561 2 14.41
18
Valeo Comfort AND Driving Assistance SAS 33 6 1,717,463 1 13.18
19
Safran Landing Systems SAS 38 1 12,000,000 0 13.06
20
Soitec SA 24 5 4,900,355 0 12.03
21
Ratier-Figeac SAS 7 3 12,076,926 0 10.32
22
Thales DIS France SAS 46 2 891,295 0 10.28
23
Liebherr-Aerospace Toulouse SAS 12 3 10,115,239 0 10.21
24
Soprema SAS 8 6 3,282,700 12 10.09
25
Airbus Defence AND Space SAS 50 1 850,825 1 9.79
26
Arianegroup SAS 37 2 2,732,528 0 9.68
27
Valeo Systemes Thermiques SAS 56 0 0 4 9.30
28
Nexans SA 53 0 0 10 8.96
29
Stmicroelectronics (Crolles 2) SAS 2 3 9,986,564 0 8.51
30
Decathlon SE 34 0 0 114 8.50
31
Saft SAS 20 3 3,337,959 2 8.37
32
Thales AVS France SAS 0 4 7,444,113 7 8.31
33
Sagemcom Energy & Telecom SAS 50 0 0 1 8.24
34
Stmicroelectronics Rousset SAS 33 2 524,224 0 7.98
35
Electricite de France SA 0 6 1,043,722 2 7.47
36
Somfy Activites SA 42 0 0 10 7.15
37
Arkema France SA 0 5 1,382,469 11 6.70
38
Universite de Picardie Jules Verne 6 4 2,007,435 1 6.57
39
Stmicroelectronics (Grenoble 2) SAS 11 3 2,530,282 0 6.46
40
Safran Transmission Systems SAS 20 1 4,090,958 0 6.37
41
Aptar France SAS 27 1 286,125 24 6.34
42
Artelia SAS 0 5 266,325 1 5.92
43
Eurecom GIE 2 3 3,315,183 0 5.36
44
Safran Electronics & Defense SAS 29 0 0 9 4.99
45
Safran Aerosystems SAS 11 2 1,333,938 0 4.74
46
Specialty Operations France SAS 20 1 83,779 0 4.48
47
Manitou BF SA 26 0 0 4 4.37
48
Zedel SAS 21 0 0 31 4.24
49
Exail SAS 11 1 2,480,913 4 4.23
50
Robeaute SAS 3 2 2,776,931 0 4.11
Rank Organisation Patent
applications 		Funded
projects 		Funding
Amount (EUR) 		Trademark
applications 		Score
1
Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives 610 50 50,188,748 11 67.64
2
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 232 141 134,260,456 0 62.11
3
Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale 30 44 41,792,565 2 17.34
4
Metropole Europeenne de Lille 0 1 4,000,000 18 11.00
5
Institut National de Recherche Pour l'Agriculture l'Alimentation et l'Environnement 15 27 14,408,438 2 8.31
6
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales 7 6 18,755,169 2 6.46
7
BRGM 2 4 24,500,000 0 6.05
8
Sorbonne Universite 0 21 10,966,903 1 5.24
9
Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1 29 13 5,814,391 0 4.82
10
Universite d'AIX Marseille 24 10 4,382,654 0 3.81
11
Institut Pasteur 9 13 7,849,502 0 3.80
12
Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique 5 12 3,412,104 2 3.52
13
Universite de Bordeaux 9 11 7,076,939 0 3.42
14
Assistance Publique Hopitaux de Paris 7 9 3,747,190 1 2.87
15
Institut Mines-Telecom 22 5 1,849,007 0 2.57
16
Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble 21 1 850,000 0 1.85
17
Universite Cote d'Azur 0 6 2,878,430 1 1.84
18
Institut Pasteur 3 4 5,102,730 0 1.79
19
IFP Energies Nouvelles 0 5 2,975,103 1 1.75
20
CY Cergy Paris Universite 1 4 2,640,338 1 1.64
21
College de France 6 3 3,895,313 0 1.63
22
Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne 0 7 1,230,661 1 1.58
23
Universite de Montpellier 15 3 479,554 0 1.53
24
Centre Technique Industriel de la Plasturgie et des Composites 1 7 3,041,797 0 1.50
25
Laboratoire National de Metrologie et d'Essais 0 2 629,338 2 1.46
26
Institut National des Sciences Appliquees de Lyon 2 7 1,847,868 0 1.31
27
Universite de Technologie de Compiegne 4 4 2,404,920 0 1.26
28
Institut Gustave Roussy 1 4 2,909,375 0 1.15
29
Institut National des Sciences Appliquees de Toulouse 1 6 1,887,389 0 1.13
30
Institut Curie 3 6 1,002,233 0 1.08
31
Universite Lumiere Lyon 2 1 3 2,991,759 0 1.06
32
IRT Antoine de Saint Exupery 1 4 2,149,391 0 0.98
33
Universite de Caen Normandie 3 2 2,047,480 0 0.89
34
Univ Paris XIII Paris-Nord Villetaneuse 1 3 1,398,273 0 0.71
35
Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epiniere 3 3 695,102 0 0.70
36
Universite de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines 2 3 744,739 0 0.63
37
Universite de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour 5 2 132,765 0 0.61
38
Universite Marie et Louis Pasteur 2 3 592,961 0 0.60
39
Institut Superieur de l'Aeronautique et de l'Espace 1 3 564,662 0 0.52
40
Agence Nationale de Securite Sanitaire de L Alimentation de L Environnement et du Travail 1 3 551,467 0 0.52
41
Centre Hospitalier Regional et Universitaire de Brest 5 1 0 0 0.48
42
Centre d'Etudes et d'Expertise sur les Risques l'Environnement la Mobilite et l'Amenagement 1 3 248,839 0 0.45
43
Universite de Technologie de Troyes 2 2 259,801 0 0.42
44
Institut de Recherche Technologique Jules Verne 3 1 375,000 0 0.41
45
Institut Pasteur de Lille 3 1 90,848 0 0.35
46
Centralesupelec 3 1 0 0 0.33

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 Sat Hor 15 %
Total public funding Fts 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.