The UGR has risen to 189th place in the World University Rankings for Innovation (WURI), climbing 25 spots compared to last year and securing its position as Spain’s most innovative university
The University of Granada (UGR) continues to strengthen its international reputation for innovation, ranking for the first time among the world’s top 200 most innovative universities according to the 2026 edition of WURI. The UGR has reached 189th place globally, advancing 25 spots since 2025 and consolidating the upward trajectory it has maintained since first being included in the ranking.
Furthermore, the UGR holds the top spot among Spanish universities in 2026 and remains the leading institution in Andalusia. The results reinforce the University’s position as a standard-bearing institution in university innovation, educational transformation, knowledge transfer and social engagement.
The WURI ranking assesses the innovative contributions of higher education institutions to society and industry. Specifically, it focuses on the real-world impact of universities in areas such as education, research, knowledge transfer, sustainability, digital transformation and social responsibility.
This year’s ranking has seen a significant increase in the number of universities assessed, as well as in the ranking’s international competitiveness. It now includes 500 institutions, compared to 400 in 2025, and analyses almost 13,000 innovative projects submitted by universities from around the world, compared to 4,866 in 2025.
Against this increasingly competitive backdrop, the UGR has significantly improved its overall position, outperforming other Spanish universities featured in the top 500, including IE University, in 279th place, and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), in 452nd place.
The WURI ranking distinguishes itself through its focus on applied innovation and the social impact of universities. In this regard, it analyses 24 categories related to topics such as curricular innovation, international mobility, the application of artificial intelligence to teaching and management systems, knowledge transfer, sustainability, institutional leadership and social inclusion. This analysis is based on three main criteria: the degree of innovation of the initiatives presented, the viability of their implementation, and the real-world impact and scope of the programmes developed by the participating institutions.
The UGR’s performance in the ranking has shown steady improvements in recent years. After ranking in the 201–300 range in 2023, the University reached 233rd place in 2024, climbed to 214th place in 2025, and achieved 189th place globally in 2026.
Salvador del Barrio, the UGR’s Vice-Rector for Ceuta and Melilla Campuses, Strategic Planning and Communications, stated that these results “constitute international recognition of the collective effort our University has been making to place innovation at the heart of our academic mission. It is not just a matter of improving our position in a ranking, but of demonstrating that many of the initiatives being driven by the UGR have a real impact on the transformation of our university and on our contributions to society. Featuring for the first time among the world’s 200 most innovative universities confirms our upward trajectory and strengthens our commitment to being a public university that can anticipate change, generate useful knowledge and respond effectively to the major challenges of our time.”
The full results are available on the “UGR in Rankings” website:
https://analitica.ugr.es/rankings/ranking/the-world-university-rankings-for-innovation/
Contact details:
Secretariat for Strategic Planning
Vice-Rectorate for Ceuta and Melilla Campuses, Strategic Planning and Communications
planifica@ugr.es
Translated version: This text has been translated into English by the Language Services Unit (Vice-Rectorate for Internationalization) of the University of Granada.