Carbon Brief’s ranking of the most highly cited institutions

Analysis of Carbon Brief’s Cosmos database reveals the world’s leading “institutions” for climate research.

There are more than 40,000 institutions in the Cosmos database, ranging from universities and research laboratories, through to policy institutes and governmental bodies.

Carbon Brief has given each institution a “publication count”, by adding up the number of times that its experts appear in the author list of studies in the Cosmos database.

This analysis has allowed Carbon Brief to identify the 500 institutions with the highest publication count – as part of the Cosmos 500 rankings, which also includes authors and publications.

More than one third of institutions in the ranking are based in the US, underscoring the threat currently posed by the Trump administration’s attacks on climate science.

Meanwhile, there are only 30 institutions from global south countries in the Cosmos 500, around half of which are in China.

The
top five

The “publication count” metric is based on the number of publications linked to an institution, based on author affiliations when a study was published.

For this, Carbon Brief used OpenAlex, an open-source catalogue of millions of academic books, studies and reports.

Often, a parent institution is linked to a group of subsidiary organisations. For example, the University of London encompasses a range of institutions including University College London, King’s College London and the London School of Economics.

Carbon Brief uses the definition of institutions provided by OpenAlex.

(The method section below explains how Carbon Brief has scored the institutions in more detail.)

French National Centre for Scientific Research

Topping the Cosmos 500 ranking is the French National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS), with a publication count of 864,154.

The organisation, established in 1939, is “active in all scientific fields” and employs almost 30,000 scientists in France and abroad.

Its main hubs for climate science include the National Institute of Sciences of the Universe, the Institute of Ecology and Environment and the Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory.

Many of these hubs are also listed separately in the Cosmos 500. For example, the Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory ranks 40th.

CNRS has more than 20 scientists in the Cosmos 500 ranking of the most highly cited authors, including Prof Philippe Ciais – the highest ranking author in the Cosmos database – as well as Dr Oliviér Boucher and Dr Wilfried Thuiller.

NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research

In second place is the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) – a federally funded research and development centre headquartered in Colorado, US – with a score of 721,372.

The organisation describes itself as a “global leader in Earth system science”. It manages multiple facilities, including the Mesa Laboratory in Colorado and the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory in Hawaii.

The organisation has more than 60 scientists in the Cosmos 500 ranking of the most highly cited authors, including Dr Gerald Meehl and Dr Jean‐François Lamarque. It was founded in 1960.

University of Washington

The University of Washington is the third most highly cited organisation in Carbon Brief’s ranking, with a score of 662,032.

Its main divisions centred on climate change include the programme on climate change, the climate impacts group and the department of atmospheric and climate science.

The university was established in 1861. It has more than 25 scientists in its Cosmos 500 ranking of the most highly cited authors, including Prof John Wallace and Prof Chris Bretherton.

Chinese Academy of Sciences

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) takes fourth place, with a score of 530,244. According to Nature, it is the world’s largest research organisation. It was established in 1949, contains 106 research institutes and boasts more than 70,000 full-time employees.

The Institute of Atmospheric Physics and the Institute of Earth Environment are among the key climate science bodies at CAS. These are ranked, separately, at 107 and 439 in the Cosmos 500.

The Cosmos 500 ranking features CAS scientists including Dr An Zhisheng and Dr Tianjun Zhou.

In total, there are only 30 institutions from global south countries in the Cosmos 500 ranking. Half of these are in China.

Columbia University

In fifth place is New York’s Columbia University, with a score of 505,465. The organisation was established in 1754, making it the fifth-oldest institution of higher education in the US.

Much of the university’s climate change research is conducted through the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which was launched in 1949.

The Cosmos 500 ranking features scientists from Columbia University such as Prof Richard Seager and Dr Gavin Schmidt.

Rest of the top 20

6. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC), founded in 1959, is sixth in the Cosmos 500 ranking. The organisation, which is based in Maryland, focuses its research on using observations from space to increase knowledge of the Earth, the solar system and the universe.

The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) sits within the Earth Sciences Division of the GSFC. This is ranked separately in the Cosmos database, coming in at position 87.

7. Ranking seventh is University of California, Berkeley – the founding campus of the University of California system, which was established in 1868. This is one of the 10 campuses that together make up the University of California.

Others include UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego, which rank – separately – at positions 36, 37 and 44, respectively, in the Cosmos 500.

Climate change research at the institution is mainly coordinated by the Berkeley Climate Change Network.

8. In eighth place is the University of Colorado, Boulder – the first campus in the University of Colorado, which is made up of four campuses. The campus was founded in 1876.

The University of Colorado, Boulder, formed a partnership with NOAA to create the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) in 1967. This institute ranks 45th in the Cosmos ranking and hosts crucial research centres, such as the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

(Note that the University of Colorado, Bounder, is separate from NCAR, although the two institutions have collaborated closely on climate change research.)

9. The US Geological Survey (USGS), which forms part of the US Department of the Interior, takes the ninth spot on Carbon Brief’s Cosmos 500.

Its website says: ”The USGS began in 1879 to study the nation’s lands and resources. Today, we monitor, analyse, and predict Earth’s changing systems.”

10. Rounding out the top 10 is Stanford University in California, with a score of 407,969.

Making up the rest of the top-20 institutions in the Cosmos 500 are:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), US
The University of Oxford, UK
Harvard University, US
Princeton University, US
The Met Office, UK
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, US
The University of Maryland, US
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
The University of East Anglia, UK
Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands

IPCC-only database

Carbon Brief has also analysed the 107,000 unique studies, reports and books that are directly referenced in the IPCC reports. This subset of data is known as the “IPCC-only” section of the Cosmos database.

There is a high level of overlap between the main Cosmos 500 ranking and the IPCC-only ranking.

In the IPCC-only ranking, the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research comes in first place. CNRS comes second and in third place is the Met Office (UK).

US dominance

Carbon Brief’s Cosmos 500 ranking shows how institutions and scientists in the US are a cornerstone of climate science. The ranking reveals that 183 institutions in the Cosmos 500 ranking – as well as 13 of the top 20 – are based in the US.

The UK is next in the ranking, with 53 institutions in the Cosmos 500. Australia and Germany take third and fourth place with 33 and 31 institutions each, closely followed by France and Canada with 30 and 29, respectively.

The plot below shows that the Cosmos 500 is dominated by institutions from the US.

The following appear in the Cosmos 500 with one institution and are omitted from the chart: Argentina, Chile, Kenya, European Union, Portugal, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Russia, Poland, Ireland, Iceland, Indonesia and Philippines.

While US institutions have been seen as global leaders on climate research for decades, they have been threatened by funding cuts and political interference under the Trump administration, with US climate scientists and their research coming under attack.

For example, in the spring of 2025, hundreds of staff members at NOAA – which ranks 11th in the Cosmos 500 – were fired. The move came amid a push from the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency”, or DOGE, to cut costs.

In April 2025, the Trump administration dismissed all contributors to the sixth US national climate assessment over email. The Guardian noted that nearly 400 scientists and other experts were listed as authors on the report, which has been published routinely since the year 2000 and is “used by federal and local governments to understand how to prepare for climate crisis impacts”.

In March 2026, the New York Times reported that an estimated 95,000 employees “have left federal science agencies through layoffs, retirements or resignations since Mr Trump returned to the White House last year”.

The rankings

Rank	Name	Citations	Country
1	Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique	864,154	France
2	NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research	721,372	US
3	University of Washington	662,032	US
4	Chinese Academy of Sciences	530,244	China
5	Columbia University	505,465	US
6	Goddard Space Flight Center	471,663	US
7	University of California, Berkeley	452,748	US
8	University of Colorado Boulder	442,368	US
9	United States Geological Survey	431,595	US
10	Stanford University	408,605	US
11	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration	402,451	US
12	University of Oxford	400,870	UK
13	Harvard University	399,821	US
14	Princeton University	389,300	US
15	Met Office	387,194	UK
16	University of Wisconsin–Madison	356,339	US
17	University of Maryland, College Park	353,587	US
18	ETH Zurich	349,973	Switzerland
19	University of East Anglia	348,177	UK
20	Wageningen University & Research	346,851	Netherlands
21	Colorado State University	343,606	US
22	Scripps Institution of Oceanography	340,163	US
23	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	317,496	US
24	Oregon State University	312,954	US
25	Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation	312,696	Australia
26	Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory	309,869	US
27	University of British Columbia	306,098	Canada
28	Utrecht University	303,750	Netherlands
29	Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution	297,287	US
30	University of Cambridge	297,044	UK
31	University of Reading	294,899	UK
32	University of Minnesota	292,024	US
33	University of Arizona	283,790	US
34	University of California, Davis	278,670	US
35	University of California, Santa Barbara	276,569	US
36	Stockholm University	273,703	Sweden
37	University of Leeds	271,904	UK
38	Cornell University	271,165	US
39	Australian National University	269,755	Australia
40	Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement	260,675	France
41	Pennsylvania State University	256,650	US
42	University of California, San Diego	255,203	US
43	Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences	254,149	US
44	Yale University	253,102	US
45	Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung	247,411	Germany
46	NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory	236,051	US
47	Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research	233,742	Germany
48	Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives	231,148	France
49	Duke University	228,938	US
50	University of California, Irvine	227,589	US
51	University of California, Los Angeles	225,392	US
52	University of Alaska Fairbanks	220,935	US
53	University of Copenhagen	217,543	Denmark
54	Max Planck Society	217,173	Germany
55	University of Edinburgh	215,733	UK
56	University of Florida	211,735	US
57	CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere	208,719	Australia
58	Imperial College London	208,444	UK
59	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	207,274	US
60	University College London	201,642	UK
61	Sorbonne Université	197,222	France
62	University of Bern	197,108	Switzerland
63	Institut de Recherche pour le Développement	195,932	France
64	University of Bristol	195,824	UK
65	Lund University	192,697	Sweden
66	Jet Propulsion Laboratory	192,551	US
67	University of Toronto	191,970	Canada
68	California Institute of Technology	190,337	US
69	University of Exeter	189,735	UK
70	University of Miami	189,561	US
71	Texas A&M University	188,620	US
72	Max Planck Institute for Meteorology	188,310	Germany
73	James Cook University	185,920	Australia
74	Environment and Climate Change Canada	180,150	Canada
75	Arizona State University	178,339	US
76	The Ohio State University	177,594	US
77	McGill University	175,432	Canada
78	Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey	175,383	US
79	UNSW Sydney	174,773	Australia
80	University of Helsinki	173,025	Finland
81	University of Oslo	171,078	Norway
82	University of Michigan–Ann Arbor	170,885	US
83	The University of Texas at Austin	170,638	US
84	The University of Tokyo	170,366	Japan
85	Goddard Institute for Space Studies	168,530	US
86	International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis	166,809	Austria
87	Michigan State University	166,803	US
88	University of Chicago	166,411	US
89	University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa	166,124	US
90	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	163,951	Netherlands
91	University of Hawaii System	161,180	US
92	UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology	155,607	UK
93	Planetary Science Institute	155,447	US
94	Oak Ridge National Laboratory	154,928	US
95	British Antarctic Survey	152,606	UK
96	Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry	152,373	Germany
97	Joint Research Centre	151,977	Italy
98	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory	151,065	US
99	University of New Hampshire	149,629	US
100	University of Sheffield	149,394	UK
101	NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory	148,982	US
102	University of California, Santa Cruz	147,841	US
103	University of Southampton	146,635	UK
104	National Oceanography Centre	143,774	UK
105	University of Bergen	143,390	Norway
106	US Forest Service	142,052	US
107	Institute of Atmospheric Physics	140,576	China
108	University of Georgia	140,432	US
109	Agricultural Research Service	140,145	US
110	Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory	139,165	US
111	Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory	136,847	US
112	Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences	136,168	Sweden
113	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	136,166	US
114	Aarhus University	135,708	Denmark
115	European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts	135,226	UK
116	Environmental Protection Agency	131,517	US
117	Georgia Institute of Technology	127,832	US
118	University of Tasmania	127,673	Australia
119	Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute	127,390	Netherlands
120	University of Alberta	127,386	Canada
121	National Institute for Environmental Studies	126,855	Japan
122	University of Cape Town	125,590	S Africa
123	University of Bremen	123,556	Germany
124	North Carolina State University	123,281	US
125	University of Queensland	119,113	Australia
126	Boston University	118,507	US
127	Monash University	116,236	Australia
128	University of Victoria	115,970	Canada
129	Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines	113,734	France
130	Johns Hopkins University	111,314	US
131	University of Zurich	111,068	Switzerland
132	GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel	110,719	Germany
133	Max Planck Institute for Chemistry	109,562	Germany
134	Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology	109,399	Japan
135	University of Manchester	108,732	UK
136	Universität Hamburg	108,678	Germany
137	University of Utah	107,697	US
138	Peking University	106,837	China
139	University of Virginia	106,569	US
140	Dalhousie University	106,307	Canada
141	Harvard University Press	105,634	US
142	CEA Paris-Saclay	105,158	France
143	Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research	105,068	Switzerland
144	Universidade de São Paulo	104,947	Brazil
145	Florida State University	104,827	US
146	Météo-France	104,673	France
147	Purdue University West Lafayette	102,251	US
148	University of Aberdeen	101,793	UK
149	Uppsala University	101,765	Sweden
150	University of Gothenburg	100,268	Sweden
151	University of York	100,212	UK
152	Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas	99,702	Spain
153	University of Montana	99,349	US
154	Newcastle University	99,183	UK
155	Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research	99,022	US
156	Fisheries and Oceans Canada	98,995	Canada
157	University of Nebraska–Lincoln	98,880	US
158	Langley Research Center	98,737	US
159	University of Melbourne	98,058	Australia
160	Delft University of Technology	97,414	Netherlands
161	Carnegie Mellon University	97,281	US
162	Bureau of Meteorology	96,053	Australia
163	Carnegie Institution for Science	96,002	US
164	The University of Melbourne	95,790	Australia
165	Macquarie University	95,330	Australia
166	NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory	95,315	US
167	University of Chinese Academy of Sciences	94,956	China
168	University of Southern California	94,380	US
169	Durham University	94,204	UK
170	Tyndall Centre	94,007	UK
171	Stony Brook University	93,692	US
172	University of Maine	93,167	US
173	Lancaster University	92,464	UK
174	University of Michigan	91,385	US
175	Beijing Normal University	90,603	China
176	The University of Queensland	90,391	Australia
177	Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency	90,061	Netherlands
178	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	89,936	Germany
179	Tsinghua University	89,807	China
180	University of Massachusetts Amherst	89,231	US
181	Indiana University Bloomington	88,660	US
182	University of Sussex	88,194	UK
183	National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research	87,683	New Zealand
184	Brown University	87,107	US
185	Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique	86,577	France
186	University of Groningen	86,518	Netherlands
187	University of Birmingham	86,420	UK
188	National Bureau of Economic Research	86,332	US
189	University of Amsterdam	86,294	Netherlands
190	Woodwell Climate Research Center	86,196	US
191	University of Rhode Island	86,015	US
192	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona	85,757	Spain
193	NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service	85,502	US
194	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	85,151	Switzerland
195	Louisiana State University	85,083	US
196	NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction	84,945	US
197	Iowa State University	84,509	US
198	KU Leuven	84,260	Belgium
199	Science Systems and Applications (United States)	83,845	US
200	United States Department of Agriculture	83,402	US
201	NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information	83,125	US
202	CSIRO Land and Water	83,015	Australia
203	University of Delaware	82,982	US
204	University of Guelph	81,748	Canada
205	University of Maryland, Baltimore County	81,747	US
206	Australian Institute of Marine Science	81,425	Australia
207	Japan Meteorological Agency	81,067	Japan
208	Technical University of Denmark	81,028	Denmark
209	Los Alamos National Laboratory	80,810	US
210	Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research	80,776	Netherlands
211	University of California, Riverside	80,743	US
212	London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine	80,513	UK
213	Natural Environment Research Council	80,442	UK
214	Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research	80,322	Switzerland
215	University of Wyoming	79,940	US
216	UCLouvain	79,082	Belgium
217	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	78,923	Israel
218	University of Göttingen	78,910	Germany
219	University of Sydney	78,890	Australia
220	National Centre for Atmospheric Science	78,662	UK
221	Ghent University	78,377	Belgium
222	University of Vienna	78,013	Austria
223	Marine Biological Laboratory	77,953	US
224	China Meteorological Administration	77,680	China
225	New York University	77,042	US
226	Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center	76,911	US
227	University of Liverpool	76,756	UK
228	University of Bonn	76,039	Germany
229	State University of New York	75,742	US
230	University of Lisbon	75,420	Portugal
231	Technical University of Munich	75,301	Germany
232	Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México	74,840	Mexico
233	Meteorological Research Institute	74,408	The Virgin Islands
234	University of Oklahoma	73,846	US
235	Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research	73,746	Germany
236	Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace	73,563	France
237	University of Waterloo	73,513	Canada
238	Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research	73,477	China
239	World Bank	72,619	US
240	University of Kansas	72,437	US
241	Umeå University	72,435	Sweden
242	Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research	72,425	Norway
243	University of Western Australia	72,383	Australia
244	Hokkaido University	72,259	Japan
245	University of Pennsylvania	71,695	US
246	University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science	71,627	US
247	ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies	71,164	Australia
248	University of South Carolina	71,056	US
249	Plymouth Marine Laboratory	71,044	UK
250	University of Auckland	70,722	New Zealand
251	Finnish Meteorological Institute	70,577	Finland
252	National University of Singapore	69,886	Singapore
253	University of Tennessee at Knoxville	69,408	US
254	Universität Innsbruck	69,200	Austria
255	Simon Fraser University	69,153	Canada
256	University of New Mexico	69,024	US
257	Northern Arizona University	69,014	US
258	University at Albany, State University of New York	68,659	US
259	Ifremer	68,412	France
260	Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques	67,642	France
261	Griffith University	67,636	Australia
262	Washington State University	67,185	US
263	Université du Québec à Montréal	66,893	Canada
264	Université Paris Cité	66,435	France
265	Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement	66,265	France
266	Cardiff University	66,039	UK
267	University of Plymouth	66,030	UK
268	University of Connecticut	65,505	US
269	Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier	65,122	France
270	Université Laval	65,117	Canada
271	Utah State University	65,029	US
272	University of Otago	64,996	New Zealand
273	Ames Research Center	64,944	US
274	Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas	64,841	Argentina
275	University of Ottawa	64,794	Canada
276	University of Bayreuth	64,576	Germany
277	Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies	64,381	US
278	Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute	64,095	Panama
279	Kiel University	63,572	Germany
280	Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology	63,518	Switzerland
281	London School of Economics and Political Science	63,476	UK
282	Universitat de Barcelona	63,305	Spain
283	Desert Research Institute	63,130	US
284	Centers for Disease Control and Prevention	62,704	US
285	King's College London	62,533	UK
286	NSF NCAR Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory	62,438	US
287	Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute	62,355	Sweden
288	Natural Resources Canada	61,804	Canada
289	Université Grenoble Alpes	61,640	France
290	Norwegian University of Science and Technology	61,582	Norway
291	Virginia Tech	60,273	US
292	University of Oregon	60,213	US
293	University of Antwerp	60,089	Belgium
294	Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)	59,883	Germany
295	University of Hong Kong	59,575	Hong Kong
296	Finnish Environment Institute	59,552	Finland
297	Stockholm Resilience Centre	59,529	Sweden
298	University of Nottingham	59,388	UK
299	Dartmouth College	59,055	US
300	Kyoto University	59,051	Japan
301	Université Joseph Fourier	58,962	France
302	University of Calgary	58,596	Canada
303	Joint Global Change Research Institute	58,193	US
304	Université de Montpellier	58,113	France
305	Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology	57,925	China
306	University of Iowa	57,538	US
307	Canadian Forest Service	56,852	Canada
308	The Nature Conservancy	56,794	US
309	Argonne National Laboratory	56,501	US
310	Rocky Mountain Research Station	56,279	US
311	National Institute for Space Research	55,979	Brazil
312	UiT The Arctic University of Norway	55,629	Norway
313	University of Liège	55,530	Belgium
314	Seattle University	55,504	US
315	Smithsonian Institution	55,444	US
316	Norwegian Meteorological Institute	55,340	Norway
317	NOAA National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service	55,296	US
318	CICERO Center for International Climate Research	55,231	Norway
319	Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive	55,162	France
320	Bangor University	55,078	UK
321	University of St Andrews	54,858	UK
322	Brookhaven National Laboratory	54,752	US
323	University of Basel	54,267	Switzerland
324	Conservation International	53,846	US
325	University of Potsdam	53,798	Germany
326	Northwestern University	53,180	US
327	Seoul National University	53,065	South Korea
328	University of Freiburg	52,945	Germany
329	San Diego State University	52,868	US
330	The University of Western Australia	52,629	Australia
331	Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques	52,510	France
332	Nanjing University	52,312	China
333	Heidelberg University	52,296	Germany
334	Paul Scherrer Institute	52,040	Switzerland
335	William & Mary	52,010	US
336	Australian Research Council	51,977	Australia
337	University of Adelaide	51,660	Australia
338	Goethe University Frankfurt	51,136	Germany
339	University of London	50,920	UK
340	Aberystwyth University	50,753	UK
341	Tel Aviv University	50,400	Israel
342	Forschungszentrum Jülich	50,153	Germany
343	University of Saskatchewan	50,152	Canada
344	Queen's University	49,924	Canada
345	Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin	49,840	Germany
346	Laboratoire d’Études en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales	49,580	France
347	Florida International University	49,526	US
348	George Mason University	49,361	US
349	Netherlands Institute of Ecology	49,290	Netherlands
350	Kansas State University	49,264	US
351	Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research	49,001	New Zealand
352	University of Wollongong	48,790	Australia
353	Rothamsted Research	48,685	UK
354	Stellenbosch University	48,655	S Africa
355	Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement	48,422	France
356	McMaster University	48,100	Canada
357	Freie Universität Berlin	47,956	Germany
358	University of Manitoba	47,877	Canada
359	Université de Bordeaux	47,551	France
360	National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis	47,216	US
361	University of Idaho	47,185	US
362	NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories	46,918	US
363	College of Marin	46,903	US
364	BOKU University	46,750	Austria
365	ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science	46,744	Australia
366	Swansea University	46,723	UK
367	Norwegian Institute of Marine Research	46,712	Norway
368	Nagoya University	46,573	Japan
369	University of Vermont	46,515	US
370	Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada	46,352	Canada
371	TU Wien	46,327	Austria
372	Montana State University	46,212	US
373	Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München	45,923	Germany
374	Victoria University of Wellington	45,698	New Zealand
375	Bedford Institute of Oceanography	45,653	Canada
376	University of Twente	45,576	Netherlands
376	American Museum of Natural History	45,576	US
378	Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research	45,539	China
379	International Food Policy Research Institute	45,356	US
380	Natural History Museum	45,038	UK
381	Emory University	44,998	US
382	Norwegian Polar Institute	44,878	Norway
383	Australian Antarctic Division	44,769	Australia
384	Western University	44,453	Canada
385	Centre de Recherche et d’Enseignement de Géosciences de l’Environnement	43,885	France
386	University of Lausanne	43,878	Switzerland
387	Radboud University Nijmegen	43,868	Netherlands
388	National Research Council	43,826	Italy
389	University of Missouri	43,703	US
390	United States Naval Research Laboratory	43,632	US
391	National Taiwan University	43,628	Taiwan
392	University of Glasgow	43,395	UK
393	Lanzhou University	43,367	China
394	University of Wales	43,329	UK
395	Carleton University	43,267	Canada
396	Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences	43,207	Sweden
397	Geological Survey of Canada	43,160	Canada
398	National Aeronautics and Space Administration	43,087	US
399	Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications	43,035	Spain
400	Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations	42,802	Italy
401	Université Libre de Bruxelles	42,781	Belgium
402	Deltares	42,714	Netherlands
403	National Institute of Amazonian Research	42,519	Brazil
404	University of the Witwatersrand	42,410	S Africa
405	University of Hohenheim	42,361	Germany
406	University of Cologne	42,232	Germany
407	Danish Meteorological Institute	41,994	Denmark
408	Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre	41,787	Australia
409	NOAA Oceanic and Atmospheric Research	41,771	US
410	National Institute for Public Health and the Environment	41,711	Netherlands
411	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	41,614	US
412	Irvine University	41,600	US
413	Chalmers University of Technology	41,465	Sweden
414	Russian Academy of Sciences	41,282	Russia
415	University of Leicester	41,166	UK
416	The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)	41,152	Italy
417	Polish Academy of Sciences	40,972	Poland
418	Syracuse University	40,956	US
419	Université de Montréal	40,582	Canada
420	University of Padua	40,505	Italy
421	Aix-Marseille Université	40,425	France
422	University of Pittsburgh	40,321	US
423	Norwegian University of Life Sciences	40,284	Norway
424	Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique	40,248	Morocco
425	Università degli Studi della Tuscia	40,164	Italy
426	Washington University in St. Louis	40,157	US
427	Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz	40,115	Germany
428	The Open University	40,004	UK
429	Universidad Complutense de Madrid	39,981	Spain
430	University College Dublin	39,905	Ireland
431	University of Iceland	39,782	Iceland
432	Leiden University	39,668	Netherlands
433	Earth and Space Research	39,653	US
434	NOAA Climate Prediction Center	39,607	The Virgin Islands
434	Royal Holloway University of London	39,607	UK
436	University of Canterbury	39,454	New Zealand
437	Institute of Earth Environment	39,383	China
438	York University	39,364	Canada
439	National Institutes of Health	39,346	US
440	University of Chile	39,067	Chile
441	University of Geneva	39,000	Switzerland
442	University of South Florida St. Petersburg	38,885	US
443	Clark University	38,777	US
444	Ecosystem Sciences	38,725	Australia
445	Plant Industry	38,720	Australia
446	Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences	38,615	China
447	University of Notre Dame	38,579	US
448	National Museum of Natural History	38,498	US
449	Wildlife Conservation Society	38,363	US
450	University of Eastern Finland	38,346	Finland
451	Kyushu University	38,293	Japan
452	Tohoku University	38,256	Japan
453	University of Bologna	38,193	Italy
454	Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche	37,709	France
455	Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate	37,684	Italy
456	University of Nevada, Reno	37,639	US
457	Center for International Forestry Research	37,624	Indonesia
458	The University of Sydney	37,513	Australia
459	University of Stirling	37,397	UK
460	University of Tsukuba	37,034	Japan
461	University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory	36,794	US
462	University of Technology Sydney	36,774	Australia
463	Universities Space Research Association	36,598	US
464	Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology	36,563	India
465	Old Dominion University	36,466	US
466	NOAA National Weather Service	36,447	US
467	Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel	36,390	Germany
468	Pacific Northwest Research Station	36,319	US
469	Vrije Universiteit Brussel	36,293	Belgium
470	Queen's University Belfast	36,162	UK
471	Western Sydney University	36,116	Australia
472	Resources For The Future	36,100	US
473	Atmospheric and Environmental Research	35,927	US
474	Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory	35,867	US
475	Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1	35,767	France
476	Ocean University of China	35,757	China
477	University of Essex	35,690	UK
478	University of Florence	35,544	Italy
479	Indian Institute of Science Bangalore	35,457	India
480	Auburn University	35,250	US
481	National Renewable Energy Laboratory	35,141	US
482	CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change	35,077	Italy
483	Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science	34,667	UK
484	Memorial University of Newfoundland	34,615	Canada
485	Curtin University	34,602	Australia
486	Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research	34,522	Germany
487	Rice University	34,516	US
488	Loughborough University	34,481	UK
489	World Agroforestry Centre	34,129	Kenya
490	Technische Universität Berlin	34,111	Germany
491	Institut de Ciències del Mar	33,977	Spain
492	Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation	33,835	Brazil
493	Université Fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées	33,770	France
494	University of Milan	33,745	Italy
495	Research Triangle Park Foundation	33,602	US
496	International Rice Research Institute	33,588	Philippines
497	The University of Adelaide	33,581	Australia
498	Michigan Technological University	33,533	US
499	Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute	33,492	US
500	Tufts University	33,458	US

Methodology

To produce these rankings, Carbon Brief defined a metric called the “publication count”. This is the number of times that experts from each institution appear in the author list of publications in the Cosmos universe.

Carbon Brief has used OpenAlex to identify which institution each author was affiliated with at the time their research was published.

Each institution represented on a publication equates to one point. For example, if a study lists five authors from the University of Washington and two from Columbia University, both institutions each receive one point.

To get the final ranking, Carbon Brief has added up all the publication counts of each institution.

Carbon Brief uses the definition of institutions given by OpenAlex and acknowledges that there may be inconsistencies in its classifications.

Please note: The designations employed and the presentation of the material on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of Carbon Brief concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

COSMOS 500