21.11.2025
On 20 November, the second edition of the Interdisciplinary Science Rankings by Times Higher Education in collaboration with Schmidt Science Fellows was published.
Interdisciplinary scientific research highlights the benefits of combining different academic disciplines in addressing global problems. The Times Higher Education Interdisciplinary Science Rankings (ISR) is the first attempt of its kind to assess the contribution and commitment of universities to interdisciplinary science. The scientific ranking includes 911 universities from 94 countries, including 15 Ukrainian universities. Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics ranked 801+. Four Kharkiv higher education institutions were included in the ranking, indicating a high level of research even during wartime.
The ISR methodology consists of three components, each representing a stage in the life cycle of research projects: inputs, process and outputs:
Inputs – 19%;
Process – 16%;
Outputs – 65%.
Each component is further divided into indicators to measure different aspects of that stage. The components are divided into 11 metrics to measure different aspects of each stage. For this year’s ranking, bibliometric data provider Elsevier provided more than 174.9 million citations from 18.7 million journal articles, conference proceedings, books and book chapters published over five years. The data includes over 28,700 active peer-reviewed journals indexed by Scopus, as well as all indexed publications from 2020 to 2024. Citations of these publications from 2020 to 2025 were also collected.
A survey of researchers was conducted in 2025 to assess their reputation. Universities were asked to distribute the questionnaire among their researchers. The questionnaire was aimed at scientists working in scientific disciplines such as the physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, and computer science, as well as those engaged in interdisciplinary research that covers scientific disciplines and social sciences, education, psychology, law, economics, or clinical medicine and healthcare.
The indicators in the Process section require evidence of whether the university measures indicators of interdisciplinary success, provides specific material resources for interdisciplinary research, provides specific administrative support to interdisciplinary teams, and whether it has a hiring or promotion system that recognises interdisciplinary research.