Inside the Structural Reforms That Made IU Indianapolis a Translational Overachiever
How a resource-constrained university built a top-15 translation engine — and what other institutions can learn from it.
Top Universities
Every university on this list represents the highest tier of U.S. biomedical research. We ranked 243 research universities across the United States on their ability to translate scientific discovery into real-world healthcare solutions, evaluated on 25 indicators across three core domains.
191
191
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA
Old Dominion University ranks 191st overall in the Cure Innovation Index. Located in Norfolk, Virginia, the university's strongest area is entrepreneurial readiness, where it places in the middle of the field among universities; research capabilities and market translation activity fall in the lower tier.
Learn More
192
192
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA
The University of California, Santa Barbara ranks 192nd among universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Based in Santa Barbara, California, the university occupies middle ground in both research capabilities and market translation.
Learn More
193
193
Montana State University, Bozeman
Bozeman, MT
Montana State University, Bozeman ranks 193rd among 243 universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Located in Bozeman, Montana, the university places in the mid-range for research capabilities, its strongest domain, while market translation and entrepreneurial readiness are developing areas.
Learn More
194
194
Xavier University of Louisiana
New Orleans, LA
Xavier University of Louisiana ranks 194th among 243 universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Located in New Orleans, Xavier is a historically Black university with a sustained focus on health professions education and biomedical workforce development.
Learn More
195
195
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA
San Diego State University ranks 195th among 243 universities in the Cure Innovation Index, located in San Diego, California. Its strongest performance is in Entrepreneurial Readiness, placing 167th, with an incubator and accelerator, an entrepreneur-in-residence program, and faculty-led clinical trials reflecting an applied orientation.
Learn More
196
196
University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL
The University of South Alabama ranks 196th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, located in Mobile, Alabama. Across the three domains, the university's profile is developing, with Research Capabilities as its comparatively stronger area; Market Translation and Entrepreneurial Readiness reflect similar standings.
Learn More
197
197
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI
The University of Rhode Island ranks 197th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Located in Kingston, Rhode Island, the university shows its relative strength in Market Translation, where it ranks 147th, placing it in the middle range of the field.
Learn More
198
198
University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Lowell, MA
The University of Massachusetts Lowell ranks 198th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, based in Lowell, Massachusetts. Part of the University of Massachusetts system, the university shows its highest standing in market translation; research capabilities and entrepreneurial readiness both fall in the lower tier across the three domains.
Learn More
199
199
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Newark, NJ
New Jersey Institute of Technology ranks 199th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, based in Newark, New Jersey. Across the three domains, market translation represents the university's relative area of strength, while research capabilities and entrepreneurial readiness rank lower.
Learn More
200
200
University of Texas at Arlington
Arlington, TX
The University of Texas at Arlington ranks 200th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Situated in Arlington, Texas, within the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, the university shows its comparatively strongest positioning in market translation, while research capabilities and entrepreneurial readiness rank lower in its profile.
Learn More
Cure Innovation Index Methodology
From a pool of more than 6,000 institutions, the top 303 were ranked using two dozen indicators — from scientific foundation and lab infrastructure to patents, products, and partnerships — drawn from more than a dozen federal and commercial databases, an original audit of all institutions, and surveys of more than 3,300+ scientists, industry leaders, and biomedical experts.
Explore by Category
Innovation isn't a single moment — it's an entire ecosystem. The Index evaluates institutions across two dozen indicators, grouped in three core domains that reveal the full picture of what it takes to turn groundbreaking science into real-world impact.
Insights From the Cure Innovation Index
New York State Has Built One of the Country’s Most Powerful Biomedical Ecosystems
With 27 institutions ranked among the country’s top biomedical innovators, New York’s research cluster spans the entire state, and outperforms nearly every other in the country.
Universities Face an Uncertain Future as Gap To Industry Keeps Growing
As NIH funding shrinks and industry pulls back from early-stage science, universities are rethinking how discoveries move from the lab to the market.
How Universities Became the Engine of the Biotech Industry
The Bayh-Dole Act turned federally funded research into a commercialization pipeline that built American biotech. Forty-five years later, that pipeline faces a new set of political and financial pressures that could reshape how it works.
