2022 Research Leaders: Leading government institutions in Earth & environmental sciences

The 2022 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021.

Table criteria

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Position Institution Share 2020 Share 2021 Count 2021 Change in Adjusted Share* 2020–2021
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 329.02 329.88 1061 3.9% Increase
2 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 90.66 87.33 732 -0.1% Decrease
3 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States of America (USA) 84.94 75.83 363 -7.5% Decrease
4 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), United States of America (USA) 69.42 54.38 163 -18.8% Decrease
5 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States of America (USA) 71.33 54.16 254 -21.3% Decrease
6 China Meteorological Administration (CMA), China 46.81 44.66 164 -1.1% Decrease
7 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), United States of America (USA) 34.33 40.96 122 23.7% Increase
8 Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), China 35.24 37.66 243 10.8% Increase
9 Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), Switzerland 23.67 25.75 74 12.8% Increase
10 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 17.61 25.63 80 50.9% Increase
11 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 31.25 24.99 139 -17.1% Decrease
12 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United States of America (USA) 22.33 22.69 55 5.3% Increase
13 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), United States of America (USA) 27.26 22.53 78 -14.3% Decrease
14 Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Canada 22.42 21.27 68 -1.7% Decrease
15 Institute of Research for Development (IRD), France 21.45 21.08 347 1.9% Increase
16 Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Japan 20.11 21.05 77 8.5% Increase
17 National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), Italy 20.54 21.03 49 6.1% Increase
18 China Earthquake Administration (CEA), China 18.67 17.43 53 -3.2% Decrease
19 The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia 22.31 16.32 102 -24.2% Decrease
20 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), United States of America (USA) 16.33 15.45 46 -1.9% Decrease
21 U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), United States of America (USA) 15.16 14.00 56 -4.3% Decrease
22 National Research Council (CNR), Italy 12.98 13.77 62 10.0% Increase
23 Natural Resources Canada, Canada 11.25 13.31 43 22.7% Increase
24 National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), France 8.86 13.23 140 54.7% Increase
25 China Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), China 9.23 11.55 64 29.7% Increase
26 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), United States of America (USA) 8.01 10.67 57 38.2% Increase
27 NERC British Antarctic Survey (BAS), United Kingdom (UK) 11.33 10.39 47 -5.0% Decrease
28 Met Office, United Kingdom (UK) 15.06 10.32 50 -29.0% Decrease
29 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 7.39 10.28 40 44.3% Increase
30 Academia Sinica, Taiwan 12.73 9.56 37 -22.1% Decrease
31 Smithsonian Institution, United States of America (USA) 9.71 9.20 68 -1.7% Decrease
32 Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland 8.48 9.07 34 10.9% Increase
33 Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Japan 10.24 8.25 23 -16.4% Decrease
34 India Department of Space (DOS), India 7.09 8.17 21 19.5% Increase
35 National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN), France 7.48 8.04 99 11.5% Increase
36 French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer), France 8.19 7.67 62 -2.9% Decrease
37 National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan 7.54 7.66 32 5.4% Increase
38 NWO-I, the Institutes Organisation of NWO, Netherlands 3.44 7.66 42 130.9% Increase
39 Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), Czech Republic 7.44 7.37 40 2.7% Increase
40 Sandia National Laboratories, United States of America (USA) 3.07 7.29 21 146.3% Increase
41 Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China 5.51 7.26 32 36.6% Increase
42 NERC National Oceanography Centre (NOC), United Kingdom (UK) 9.57 7.23 50 -21.7% Decrease
43 The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France 7.59 6.89 87 -5.9% Decrease
44 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan 9.69 6.88 30 -26.4% Decrease
45 Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Finland 5.77 6.85 30 22.9% Increase
46 Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS), Japan 6.06 6.63 37 13.4% Increase
47 NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), United Kingdom (UK) 4.37 6.58 34 56.0% Increase
48 European Commission (EC), Belgium 6.66 6.57 27 2.4% Increase
49 Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES), China 5.10 6.37 21 29.5% Increase
50 National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED), Japan 4.40 6.21 20 46.3% Increase

Footnote

Each year, the Nature Index publishes tables based on counts of high-quality research outputs in the previous calendar year. Users please note:

  1. The data behind the tables are based on a relatively small proportion of total research papers, they cover the natural sciences and health sciences only and outputs are non-normalized (that is, they don’t reflect the size of the country or institution, or its overall research output).
  2. The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance. The metrics of Count and Share used to order Nature Index listings are based on an institution’s or country’s publication output in 145 natural-science and health-science journals. The journals were selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields. The list is reviewed periodically and journals may be removed or added. Articles from eLife were no longer included in the Nature Index from 2023 after the journal changed its publishing model.
  3. Nature Index recognizes that many other factors must be taken into account when considering research quality and institutional performance; Nature Index metrics alone should not be used to assess institutions or individuals.
  4. Nature Index data and methods are transparent and available under a creative commons licence at nature.com/nature-index/.
  5. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The Nature Index database undergoes regular updating, corrections, adjustment of institutional hierarchies, and removal of retracted papers and thus the live website can differ from the frozen research leaders.


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