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.
241
241
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA
Georgia Southern University ranks 241st among the 243 universities assessed by the Cure Innovation Index. Based in Statesboro, Georgia, it is a regional institution whose mission centers on teaching and community engagement.
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242
242
Delaware State University
Dover, DE
Delaware State University ranks 242nd among the 243 universities assessed in the Cure Innovation Index. Located in Dover, Delaware, this public historically Black university records developing performance across all three domains.
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243
243
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco State University ranks 243rd among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, placing it among the lowest-ranked in the category. Located in San Francisco, California, the university shows similar standing across Research Capabilities and Market Translation, with somewhat stronger performance in Entrepreneurial Readiness.
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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.
