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.
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University of South Florida
Tampa, FL
University of South Florida ranks 71st among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, based in Tampa, Florida. Its strongest domain is Market Translation, where it places 45th, notably ahead of its Research Capabilities standing, which falls near the midpoint of the field.
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72
Indiana University, Bloomington
Bloomington, IN
Indiana University, Bloomington ranks 72nd among universities in the Cure Innovation Index and is located in Bloomington, Indiana. The university performs in the upper tier in both Research Capabilities and Entrepreneurial Readiness, while Market Translation is a developing area of its profile.
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73
Brown University
Providence, RI
Brown University ranks 73rd among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, based in Providence, Rhode Island. Research capabilities are a relative strength, with the university placing 41st in that domain; entrepreneurial readiness is above average, while market translation sits closer to the middle of the field.
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74
The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus ranks 74th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Located in Aurora, Colorado, the university places 55th in Research Capabilities, anchoring a broadly balanced profile across the three domains.
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75
University of Kansas Medical Center
Kansas City, KS
The University of Kansas Medical Center ranks 75th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, based in Kansas City, Kansas. It places 61st in Research Capabilities and 48th in Entrepreneurial Readiness; Market Translation, at 138th, is the area with the most room for growth.
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76
Purdue University, West Lafayette
West Lafayette, IN
Purdue University ranks 76th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index. Based in West Lafayette, Indiana, the university demonstrates its strongest positioning in market translation, where it places in the upper tier, with research capabilities and entrepreneurial readiness both performing above average.
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77
Stony Brook University (SUNY)
Stony Brook, NY
Stony Brook University (SUNY) ranks 77th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index and is located in Stony Brook, New York. The university's strongest domain is Entrepreneurial Readiness, where it places 47th, backed by an MSTP program, biomedical entrepreneurship training, an incubator and accelerator, and an entrepreneur-in-residence program.
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78
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC
North Carolina State University ranks 78th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index and is located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Its clearest strength is Entrepreneurial Readiness, where it ranks 38th, placing it among the upper tier of universities nationally.
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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ranks 79th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index and is located in Troy, New York. Its profile reflects stronger performance in market translation and entrepreneurial readiness, where it ranks 71st and 72nd, than in research capabilities, where it ranks 150th.
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80
University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL
The University of Miami ranks 80th among universities in the Cure Innovation Index, located in Coral Gables, Florida. The university's strongest domain is Market Translation, where it ranks 44th, while Research Capabilities and Entrepreneurial Readiness are more moderate.
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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.
