TU Delft most enterprising university

Value to society

The Elsevier ScienceWorks Valorisation ranking is the result of a new comparative study conducted by the research and consultancy agency ScienceWorks. The agency charted how universities make practical use of their scientific and technological knowledge for economic or social benefit. This practice of capitalising on knowledge is called ‘valorisation’.

Three spheres

The Elsevier ScienceWorks Valorisation Ranking shows there are different ways in which universities can successfully work on valorisation. The study distinguishes three spheres of valorisation: that of the Enterprising University, the Cooperative University and the Communicative University.
TU Delft earned the highest score in the first category and, moreover, had the best overall score. 

Indicators

To determine which university stimulates and facilitates entrepreneurship most effectively, ScienceWorks, among other things, looked at whether the university offers programmes in entrepreneurship and whether there are facilities to encourage entrepreneurship (such as an incubator for start-ups or a prize for entrepreneurship). The number of patents a university applies for is also taken as an indicator: over the 2003‐2007 period, TU Delft applied for the highest number of patents in absolute numbers, a total of 157.

The study took into account the numbers of researchers per university.

Fledgling Delft entrepreneur at work at YES!Delft 

Top Ten of Elsevier/ScienceWorks Valorisation Ranking 2011:

1. TU Delft
2. University of Amsterdam
3. Wageningen University
4. Erasmus University Rotterdam
5. Tilburg University
6. University of Twente
7. Utrecht University
8. Eindhoven University of Technology
9. Radboud University Nijmegen
10. University of Groningen

More information:

• Read the Elsevier article here
• More on TU Delft Valorisation Centre 
• More on YES!Delft, the TU Delft’s centre for entrepreneurship