Prepared by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, responsible for the prestigious ARWU ranking, better known as the Shanghai ranking, the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2020 was released this Monday, a classification of the best universities in the world in 54 subjects or areas. In it, the University of Vigo is among the leading academic institutions in 12 categories, highlighting the position it occupies in the areas of Food Science and Technology, among the 75 best in the world, and Oceanography, a field in which it is among the top 100. Vigo is also among the 200 best universities in Telecommunications Engineering, among the top 300 in Tourism Management and among the 500 best in Earth Sciences, Ecology, Atmospheric Sciences, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Energy Sciences and Engineering, Biotechnology and Agricultural Sciences.
“The presence of UVigo in the ranking in some relevant positions is very positive, considering that we are a young university with modest funding”, emphasizes the Vice-Chancellor for Research, Belén Rubio, regarding the institution’s position in this ranking, which shows “the great potential of our research staff and the success of the confluence in the research centers”. Prepared from a series of indicators that measure “the quality of research, the extent of international collaboration, high-quality research and the highest academic recognitions”, as explained by its managers, this classification includes more than 1800 universities from 90 countries, which “compete, under the same indicators”, emphasizes Rubio, who recalls that investment in R&D in Spain “remains among the lowest” in the European Union.
Two areas that improve positions
In the two subjects in which it is among the top 100, the University also improves its positions in the ranking compared to 2019. In the case of Food Science and Technology, it moves from the block of 76 to the top 100 to the 51-75 range, also placing itself among the best in Spain in this field, only behind Valencia, the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Granada and Seville and in the same range as Lleida and Rovira i Virgili. In Oceanography, UVigo moves from the block of 101-150 to 76-100, also establishing itself as one of the best Spanish universities, only behind Barcelona and the Balearic Islands and in the same group as the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Regarding the promotions in these areas, Rubio highlights what “the strengthening of these two lines of research within the framework of strategic groups and research centers and the programs to recruit research talent” have contributed to them. In reference to Food Science and Technology, he highlights the work of the strategic group Citaca (Cluster of Research and Agro-Food Transfer of the Campus da Auga), which brings together several groups from the Faculty of Sciences of the Ourense campus and the Faculty of Biology and Chemistry of Vigo. “The union of these groups has clearly enhanced synergies and improved scientific results and the number of articles indexed in the Citation Index”, a criterion with a “high value” in this ranking, as Rubio recalls, who also points out that the recruitment programs have allowed the University to incorporate “two highly cited researchers” in this area, Maurizio Battino and Francesca Giampieri, taking into account that “another of the main indicators” of the ranking is the number of researchers with the Highly Cited Researchers label.
With regard to Oceanography, the vice-chancellor emphasizes the role played by the Campus do Mar and its international doctoral program DOMAR, “a platform for the training of excellence for new researchers”, which made it possible to defend more than 20 theses in this area last year, all preceded by the publication of articles in journals of the Science Citation Index. She also highlights the work developed by the Marine Research Center (CIM), co-financed by the FEDER/FSE Galicia 2014-2020 Operational Program, the recruitment of researchers, such as Elena Ojea, through the programs of the European Research Council (ERC) and Gianluca Marino, through the talent recruitment program of the institution itself, as well as the publications in journals of the impact of Nature or Science.
Telecommunications and energy
As in 2019, UVigo is once again among the top 200 universities in the world in this field, also being the fourth best in Spain, behind the Polytechnic of Catalonia, Carlos III of Madrid and the Polytechnic of Valencia. In this area, Rubio highlights the “long history of atlanTTic, which, like the CIM, “was revalidated as a research center in the last call of the Xunta”. It also remains in the 201-300 range in Tourism Management and joins the top 400 in Energy Science and Engineering, an area in which it did not appear last year. Behind this rise, Rubio highlights, could be the launch of Cintecx, the Center for Research in Technologies, Energy and Industrial Processes, an area in which Vigo “was a pioneer among the universities of the SUG”.
Also in the 301-400 range, Atmospheric Sciences and Chemical Engineering remain the same as last year, while Electrical and Electronic Engineering, which in 2019 was among the top 200, is also in this range. In the block that goes from 401 to 500, Earth Sciences continues in this range, and Ecology, Biotechnology and Agricultural Sciences are also in it, all of which were classified in the previous block last year.
Cooperation and recruitment to regain positions
While Energy Science and Engineering is included in this ranking, UVigo loses its presence in four areas in which it was included in 2019, Chemistry, Environmental Science and Engineering, Economics and Civil Engineering. In this regard, the Vice-Chancellor for Research highlights the importance of both talent recruitment and synergies between groups as keys to “improving fundraising” and scientific results. “We have to continue working in this direction to improve these drops in some areas and return to better values of previous years”, emphasizes Rubio, who points out the importance of promoting “new research centers in other areas” and talent recruitment. In this regard, she highlights that the latest call for applications for the Ramón y Cajal program will allow the institution to incorporate “several highly talented researchers, some of them in the field of Chemistry, while also emphasizing the need to “reorient towards these areas” the recruitment of researchers through the ERC calls and the Ramón y Cajal and Beatriz Galindo programs.
Source: DUVI.
