31 August 2016
The University of South Australia has made the Reuters list of Asia’s top 75 universities for Innovation.
As one of only six Australian universities and the youngest Australian university named in the list, UniSA Vice Chancellor Professor David Lloyd says it is further confirmation of the University’s commitment to innovation and excellence in research and a culture of enterprise and industry engagement.
Using data from Thomson Reuters IP & Science, the ranking analysed scientific literature and patent data across 10 criteria from the period 2009 to 2014 to determine which Asian institutions are the most innovative.
Professor Lloyd says he is delighted with the result and to see evidence of UniSA’s growing reputation in the Asian region for quality research.
“Given the evidence of the Excellence in Research for Australia ranking in 2015, where 97 per cent of UniSA research was assessed as world class or above, this simply confirms our genuine commitment to delivering research makes a difference in the world,” Prof Lloyd says.
“Our commitment is two-fold – to strive for excellence in the quality and rigor of our research but also to deliver solutions for industry.
“We do this as part of a wider strategy of engagement and partnership with business and industry and through collaborations with other researchers around the world – including some key links across the Asian region.”
The Reuters Innovations rankings assess a university’s innovative capacity and achievement by measuring the number of patents filed and accepted, the global reach of patents, the number of journal citations of the institutions’ patents. It also takes into account the number of research publications that have been co-authored with commercial partners and articles written by industry for industry that reference the research.
“UniSA is playing a pivotal role in supporting innovation in South Australia, nationally and internationally,” Prof Lloyd says.
“In the past five years UniSA has filed well in excess of 100 successful patents making it consistently one of the most prolific in the State.
“Across the same period, we have grown the IP licenses we complete each year three-fold and have started nine new companies on the basis of technologies developed at UniSA.
“In partnership with the State Government, we have led on initiatives such as Venture Catalyst, which seeks to encourage student entrepreneurship and the creation of local start-ups by providing funding for early-stage ventures founded by UniSA students and recent graduates.
“We have developed our Innovation & Collaboration Centre, a strategic partnership between the University of South Australia (UniSA), the South Australian Government and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to support technology-based business incubation and growth.
“And we have reshaped our flagship research at the new Future Industries Institute to ensure stronger and deeper industry research collaborations focused on delivering solutions for business and industry and supporting the evolution of new industries in SA.
“I am delighted to see the Reuters rankings confirm our strong record of action on innovation.”
Media contact: Michèle Nardelli mobile: +61 418 823 673 email: michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
