ITS Research Intelligence

Italy University Research Rankings

Name: Italy University Research Rankings – ITS Research Solution
Creator: ITS Research Solution
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

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 112 index-ready universities in Italy. Across those institutions, the average five-year research output is approximately 5,615 works and the average five-year citation count is approximately 39,604. The average publication-growth signal is 31.3%. 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 Rome Tor Vergata	Italy	86.3	26,943	203,959	3.2%
#2	University of Bari Aldo Moro	Italy	84.8	25,831	191,639	-8.4%
#3	University of Verona	Italy	84.2	20,683	155,001	4.8%
#4	Politecnico di Torino	Italy	84.1	27,266	165,077	8.7%
#5	University of Palermo	Italy	84.1	24,051	180,197	0.6%
#6	University of Trento	Italy	84.1	21,864	146,719	6.8%
#7	Vita-Salute San Raffaele University	Italy	84.0	18,545	177,261	5.1%
#8	University of Siena	Italy	83.2	16,903	108,333	25.0%
#9	University of Perugia	Italy	83.2	16,871	125,239	-6.9%
#10	University of Modena and Reggio Emilia	Italy	83.0	19,138	125,322	8.6%
#11	University of Parma	Italy	82.7	17,568	125,831	0.4%
#12	University of Ferrara	Italy	82.5	15,844	111,736	0.0%
#13	University of Messina	Italy	82.4	17,488	136,612	3.1%
#14	University of Brescia	Italy	82.1	15,298	145,449	-8.4%
#15	Marche Polytechnic University	Italy	80.6	14,127	114,266	-1.3%
#16	University of Calabria	Italy	80.4	12,913	87,570	7.0%
#17	University of Udine	Italy	80.1	11,477	76,917	7.2%
#18	Humanitas University	Italy	80.1	12,309	118,992	6.1%
#19	University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli"	Italy	80.1	15,537	148,860	-39.0%
#20	University of L'Aquila	Italy	79.2	12,780	83,693	-10.5%
#21	University of Chieti-Pescara	Italy	79.1	11,416	81,183	-2.0%
#22	Roma Tre University	Italy	79.0	13,144	68,351	2.2%
#23	Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro”	Italy	78.9	9,347	66,454	11.4%
#24	University of Salento	Italy	78.0	9,544	67,644	5.0%
#25	University of Sassari	Italy	77.5	8,836	67,341	-4.8%
#26	Scuola Normale Superiore	Italy	77.5	5,569	58,366	10.1%
#27	Polytechnic University of Bari	Italy	76.7	7,769	52,104	-13.1%
#28	Magna Graecia University	Italy	76.4	8,020	67,261	-8.7%
#29	Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna	Italy	76.4	7,661	55,038	3.2%
#30	Ca' Foscari University of Venice	Italy	75.8	13,131	52,153	-16.2%
#31	Università degli Studi di Enna Kore	Italy	75.3	3,966	22,833	179.5%
#32	Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati	Italy	75.3	5,063	42,361	-6.5%
#33	Università di Camerino	Italy	75.2	5,689	41,331	14.0%
#34	Bocconi University	Italy	74.4	7,085	35,970	1.5%
#35	Free University of Bozen-Bolzano	Italy	74.1	6,950	53,546	-2.4%
#36	Università degli Studi della Tuscia	Italy	73.9	6,775	34,923	-16.5%
#37	University of Urbino	Italy	73.5	6,792	31,142	-47.6%
#38	University of Basilicata	Italy	73.1	4,865	38,103	1.2%
#39	University of Bergamo	Italy	73.1	5,968	27,854	8.0%
#40	Gran Sasso Science Institute	Italy	72.4	2,962	24,626	19.2%
#41	University of Molise	Italy	72.1	4,962	34,705	-0.7%
#42	Pegaso University	Italy	72.0	2,298	10,776	290.9%
#43	National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology	Italy	71.6	3,337	43,252	-37.3%
#44	University of Sannio	Italy	71.2	3,352	26,256	-6.9%
#45	University of Reggio Calabria	Italy	71.1	3,818	26,521	-1.0%
#46	Università degli studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale	Italy	70.1	3,337	27,061	3.4%
#47	European University Institute	Italy	69.6	4,391	18,226	-6.4%
#48	Link Campus University	Italy	69.4	2,243	9,185	847.8%
#49	Saint Camillus International University of Health and Medical Sciences	Italy	68.3	2,907	21,347	99.5%
#50	IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca	Italy	67.8	2,303	13,163	36.5%
#51	University of Teramo	Italy	67.7	2,675	16,166	-10.5%
#52	Accademia Albertina delle Belle Arti	Italy	67.6	1,073	3,671	219.1%
#53	Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli	Italy	67.0	2,746	16,933	16.0%
#54	Università degli Studi eCampus	Italy	66.9	1,766	7,431	124.6%
#55	Mercatorum University	Italy	66.8	1,504	6,705	219.1%
#56	Marconi University	Italy	66.5	2,477	14,221	-3.4%
#57	University of Macerata	Italy	66.3	2,930	11,490	10.6%
#58	Foro Italico University of Rome	Italy	64.7	1,591	11,477	-1.3%
#59	Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta	Italy	63.8	1,789	13,102	3.8%
#60	Collegio Carlo Alberto	Italy	62.7	1,358	7,825	-5.7%
#61	University Niccolò Cusano	Italy	62.5	1,483	9,526	11.3%
#62	LUM Jean Monnet University	Italy	61.2	557	2,508	176.1%
#63	Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma	Italy	61.1	1,302	4,741	61.2%
#64	Università Iuav di Venezia	Italy	60.7	1,471	3,983	-9.8%
#65	European University of Rome	Italy	59.2	714	3,726	15.4%
#66	Unitelma Sapienza University	Italy	59.0	766	5,084	36.7%
#67	UniNettuno University	Italy	59.0	1,327	10,127	-63.7%
#68	Istituto di Matematica Applicata e Tecnologie Informatiche	Italy	59.0	715	4,684	-30.7%
#69	Interuniversity Consortium for Magnetic Resonance	Italy	58.9	494	3,834	0.0%
#70	IULM University	Italy	58.4	950	2,362	25.9%
#71	University of Gastronomic Sciences	Italy	58.0	683	3,546	27.0%
#72	University Carlo Cattaneo	Italy	56.8	581	3,683	-6.3%
#73	Institute of Marine Engineering	Italy	56.7	850	4,110	-20.6%
#74	University for Foreigners Perugia	Italy	55.8	688	2,143	16.8%
#75	University of Aosta Valley	Italy	55.2	544	2,999	7.6%
#76	Accademia di Belle Arti di Catanzaro	Italy	55.2	290	928	121.1%
#77	University of Ragusa	Italy	55.1	223	1,187	110.7%
#78	University of Naples - L'Orientale	Italy	54.9	1,435	1,754	-13.4%
#79	International University College of Turin	Italy	54.3	179	530	153.5%
#80	Giustino Fortunato University	Italy	54.0	536	4,490	-14.6%
#81	Sigmund Freud Privatuniversität - Standort Mailand	Italy	53.7	381	1,987	43.2%
#82	Consorzio Interuniversitario per le Biotecnologie	Italy	53.5	169	1,223	44.4%
#83	International School of Trieste	Italy	52.6	313	694	81.5%
#84	Istituto Euro Mediterraneo di Scienza e Tecnologia	Italy	52.3	254	1,673	-18.3%
#85	John Cabot University	Italy	52.2	435	2,160	8.8%
#86	Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa	Italy	51.6	550	952	13.0%
#87	Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna Center	Italy	50.7	267	1,630	-7.5%
#88	American University of Rome	Italy	50.3	247	721	52.0%
#89	Accademia di Belle Arti di Frosinone	Italy	50.0	245	931	43.7%
#90	Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli	Italy	49.9	136	551	219.2%
#91	Venice International University	Italy	49.9	283	690	-16.0%
#92	Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara	Italy	49.4	139	633	66.7%
#93	Rome International School	Italy	48.5	109	295	260.0%
#94	Italian University Line	Italy	48.3	219	1,011	43.7%
#95	University for Foreigners of Siena	Italy	48.1	410	435	42.4%
#96	New York University Florence	Italy	47.1	242	414	70.3%
#97	Pontifical Gregorian University	Italy	46.5	392	519	-15.5%
#98	British School at Rome	Italy	45.1	126	241	83.8%
#99	Community of Mediterranean Universities	Italy	44.4	153	433	8.3%
#100	Polo Universitario Città di Prato	Italy	43.8	159	316	59.6%

Transparent methodology

What the ITS Research Performance Score measures

The current score is intentionally research-specific. Thirty percent reflects five-year publication output, thirty percent five-year citations, twenty percent h-index, ten percent i10-index and ten percent five-year publication growth. Volume-based indicators are log-normalized before weighting so the largest universities do not dominate simply because of scale. Growth is bounded before entering the score so a tiny starting value cannot create an unrealistic advantage.

The score does not currently claim to measure teaching quality, student satisfaction, reputation, employability or finances. It also does not label the underlying citation totals as field-normalized impact. Future field-normalized modules should be added only when the underlying work-level calculations are available and validated. This separation keeps the ranking interpretable and prevents unsupported claims.

Source data is drawn from OpenAlex and linked to ROR identifiers. Both are open scholarly infrastructures. ITS Research Solution adds value through normalization, quality gates, trend calculations, ranking methodology, benchmarking and readable institution-level analysis.