ITS Research Intelligence

Italy University Research Rankings

Compare Italy universities using recent research output, citation impact, growth and a transparent research-performance score.

Research landscape

The current ITS Research Intelligence dataset contains 134 index-ready universities in Italy. Across those institutions, the average five-year research output is approximately 9,983 works and the average five-year citation count is approximately 105,331. The average publication-growth signal is 44.4%. These figures describe the institutions that pass the public quality gate; they are not intended to represent every tertiary institution in the country.

Country rankings are useful for benchmarking because they reduce some of the structural differences that make global comparisons difficult. They still should not be treated as a complete assessment of institutional quality: teaching, student outcomes, funding levels, research field mix and institutional mission are outside this research-performance score. The value of the page is in seeing who is producing research, how that activity is changing, and where citation visibility is concentrated.

Top research universities in Italy

Rank	University	Country	Score	5-year works	5-year citations	Growth
#1	University of Milan	Italy	84.9	76,249	734,803	24.7%
#2	University of Padua	Italy	84.4	65,540	734,170	17.7%
#3	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy	83.2	78,082	748,636	19.7%
#4	University of Bologna	Italy	83.0	68,762	669,922	27.2%
#5	University of Naples Federico II	Italy	81.9	47,957	553,981	18.6%
#6	University of Turin	Italy	81.8	47,922	511,164	8.5%
#7	University of Pisa	Italy	81.4	37,790	429,668	13.1%
#8	University of Florence	Italy	80.3	43,834	429,458	28.7%
#9	University of Milano-Bicocca	Italy	79.9	30,584	342,974	22.7%
#10	University of Rome Tor Vergata	Italy	79.8	27,448	307,555	20.1%
#11	University of Pavia	Italy	79.7	26,232	297,481	15.0%
#12	Vita-Salute San Raffaele University	Italy	79.6	18,703	267,675	26.1%
#13	Politecnico di Milano	Italy	79.4	42,509	351,087	-1.4%
#14	Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore	Italy	79.1	26,810	322,754	12.1%
#15	University of Genoa	Italy	79.1	29,210	306,706	16.0%
#16	University of Bari Aldo Moro	Italy	78.7	26,657	296,090	14.1%
#17	University of Trento	Italy	78.5	22,057	229,944	33.6%
#18	University of Brescia	Italy	78.2	15,987	217,177	14.2%
#19	University of Verona	Italy	78.2	21,681	233,531	24.7%
#20	University of Trieste	Italy	78.2	17,163	201,035	15.5%
#21	University of Perugia	Italy	78.2	17,972	212,919	3.0%
#22	University of Palermo	Italy	77.9	24,638	265,268	24.1%
#23	University of Salerno	Italy	77.9	19,235	229,380	11.3%
#24	University of Ferrara	Italy	77.5	16,192	180,013	17.8%
#25	University of Catania	Italy	77.2	23,315	240,745	24.2%
#26	Humanitas University	Italy	77.0	12,460	190,539	18.9%
#27	University of Parma	Italy	76.8	18,342	195,170	12.3%
#28	University of Messina	Italy	76.7	17,712	205,857	21.4%
#29	University of Siena	Italy	76.6	17,232	168,477	49.3%
#30	Politecnico di Torino	Italy	76.6	27,356	243,268	30.5%
#31	University of Modena and Reggio Emilia	Italy	76.5	19,985	199,983	22.3%
#32	University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli"	Italy	76.3	17,659	231,072	-8.3%
#33	Marche Polytechnic University	Italy	75.8	14,715	174,924	18.5%
#34	Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro”	Italy	75.1	9,607	111,982	30.1%
#35	University of Cagliari	Italy	75.1	15,592	154,244	8.9%
#36	University of Udine	Italy	74.9	11,894	122,883	24.8%
#37	Scuola Normale Superiore	Italy	74.6	5,590	80,932	34.9%
#38	University of Calabria	Italy	74.5	12,818	129,879	35.2%
#39	University of Chieti-Pescara	Italy	74.4	11,837	130,129	7.1%
#40	University of Sassari	Italy	74.2	9,182	108,245	18.7%
#41	University of Insubria	Italy	73.6	9,289	110,231	-8.9%
#42	University of L'Aquila	Italy	73.5	13,335	125,290	15.1%
#43	University of Salento	Italy	73.5	9,687	104,714	22.1%
#44	Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati	Italy	73.1	5,105	61,369	2.8%
#45	San Raffaele University of Rome	Italy	73.0	3,652	56,111	28.0%
#46	Università Campus Bio-Medico	Italy	72.6	7,342	88,082	18.9%
#47	Magna Graecia University	Italy	72.6	8,223	99,508	9.2%
#48	Roma Tre University	Italy	72.4	13,725	108,115	29.4%
#49	Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna	Italy	72.4	7,774	82,437	29.2%
#50	Università di Camerino	Italy	72.2	5,595	69,174	25.0%
#51	University of Foggia	Italy	72.1	8,194	90,469	24.2%
#52	Polytechnic University of Bari	Italy	72.0	8,068	75,597	20.4%
#53	Free University of Bozen-Bolzano	Italy	71.7	7,243	82,990	20.7%
#54	Gran Sasso Science Institute	Italy	71.5	2,873	41,901	13.7%
#55	University of Basilicata	Italy	70.9	4,892	59,877	28.9%
#56	National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology	Italy	70.8	3,813	67,327	-14.5%
#57	University of Urbino	Italy	70.4	6,773	52,121	18.4%
#58	Parthenope University of Naples	Italy	70.3	5,505	66,669	26.8%
#59	Bocconi University	Italy	70.1	7,463	60,042	22.7%
#60	University of Sannio	Italy	69.6	3,502	45,872	7.3%
#61	Università degli Studi della Tuscia	Italy	69.3	6,817	56,976	14.3%
#62	Università degli Studi di Enna Kore	Italy	68.6	3,342	30,366	220.2%
#63	University of Molise	Italy	68.4	5,054	52,212	11.6%
#64	Università degli studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale	Italy	68.1	3,507	40,443	23.3%
#65	University of Reggio Calabria	Italy	68.0	3,907	41,037	21.4%
#66	Ca' Foscari University of Venice	Italy	67.4	13,539	79,661	5.4%
#67	University of Bergamo	Italy	66.6	5,986	41,797	30.9%
#68	Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori di Pavia	Italy	66.3	2,857	25,331	113.0%
#69	Saint Camillus International University of Health and Medical Sciences	Italy	66.2	2,462	28,856	140.7%
#70	University of Teramo	Italy	65.9	2,802	28,901	8.6%
#71	European University Institute	Italy	64.3	4,592	28,632	9.5%
#72	IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca	Italy	64.2	2,253	19,071	49.0%
#73	Scuola Superiore Meridionale	Italy	64.1	1,528	15,557	190.5%
#74	Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli	Italy	63.9	2,719	24,197	20.8%
#75	Foro Italico University of Rome	Italy	63.7	1,654	17,071	16.6%
#76	Pegaso University	Italy	63.2	1,712	12,919	372.1%
#77	Marconi University	Italy	62.8	2,796	21,053	6.8%
#78	Link Campus University	Italy	62.7	1,410	12,386	606.7%
#79	Collegio Carlo Alberto	Italy	62.6	1,448	14,605	1.9%
#80	Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta	Italy	62.5	1,749	18,382	28.6%
#81	University Niccolò Cusano	Italy	61.7	1,516	16,175	23.2%
#82	UniNettuno University	Italy	61.5	1,581	16,413	-38.9%
#83	Interuniversity Consortium for Magnetic Resonance	Italy	60.6	529	6,510	-4.5%
#84	University of Macerata	Italy	60.5	2,891	17,952	36.2%
#85	Università degli Studi eCampus	Italy	60.2	1,503	10,859	118.0%
#86	Mercatorum University	Italy	60.1	1,123	9,068	208.1%
#87	University Carlo Cattaneo	Italy	59.2	588	7,227	8.9%
#88	Unitelma Sapienza University	Italy	59.1	721	7,527	64.5%
#89	Istituto di Matematica Applicata e Tecnologie Informatiche	Italy	58.2	779	6,384	-24.7%
#90	University of Gastronomic Sciences	Italy	57.3	658	5,534	28.1%
#91	European University of Rome	Italy	57.3	766	6,356	-1.3%
#92	Accademia Albertina delle Belle Arti	Italy	56.7	576	5,448	11.5%
#93	Giustino Fortunato University	Italy	56.1	562	6,235	9.5%
#94	University of Aosta Valley	Italy	56.0	546	5,165	20.3%
#95	Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma	Italy	55.5	1,191	5,672	90.8%
#96	Institute of Marine Engineering	Italy	55.1	847	5,789	6.8%
#97	LUM Jean Monnet University	Italy	54.8	408	2,957	303.0%
#98	Università Iuav di Venezia	Italy	54.0	1,449	6,560	12.7%
#99	IULM University	Italy	52.6	904	4,178	27.5%
#100	University for Foreigners Perugia	Italy	51.9	635	3,392	40.0%

Research fields where Italy universities rank

Number of Italy universities in the top 100 of each ITS research-field ranking.

Physics and Astronomy (7)Medicine (5)Immunology and Microbiology (5)Mathematics (4)Economics, Econometrics and Finance (3)Neuroscience (3)Chemical Engineering (2)Dentistry (2)Engineering (2)Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (1)Business, Management and Accounting (1)Agricultural and Biological Sciences (1)Veterinary (1)Chemistry (1)Computer Science (1)Nursing (1)

Transparent methodology

How ITS Research Score v3 is constructed

One formula applies to every index-ready institution, using the five most recent complete calendar years: 25% research output, 25% citations, 20% h-index and 5% i10-index (log-normalized so the largest universities do not dominate linearly), 15% citation impact (the institution’s percentile on citations per work, reduced below 500 works so small samples cannot win by chance), 5% publication growth and 5% international-collaboration share. When collaboration data is not yet available, the other weights are rescaled.

Data-quality controls: the unfinished current year is never counted, and a year in which recorded output jumps to more than three times the institution’s usual level while being at least 90% open access is treated as a bulk dataset or repository deposit and scored at the usual level. An affiliation check also removes institutions whose papers mostly do not name them in the author address (OpenAlex sometimes assigns a large university’s papers to a namesake school or college). Raw data are kept and every adjustment is logged. Open-access share and topic diversity are published as separate rankings and do not affect the main score. Citation impact is not field-normalized.

These indicators assess research activity only. They do not measure teaching quality, student experience, employability, reputation, finances or accreditation. Missing data are left missing rather than fabricated.