JEDDAH: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has ranked sixth in the world, and first in the Middle East and North Africa, in the Young Universities Index.
Published by Nature, the internationally renowned scientific research journal, the index lists the top 175 universities established over the past 50 years.
“We’re delighted with this result, especially during our 10th year. It attests to the quality of our faculty and the impact that their publications have had globally,” said KAUST President Dr. Tony Chan.
“We’re gratified by this recognition, and proud that we’re achieving this part of our mission in a short 10 years.”
The report praised the quality of KAUST’s research, and said the university has produced exceptional applied research outputs.
The report added that KAUST contributes a greater proportion of total research outputs than any other young university in the Middle East.
“KAUST has a truly unique research environment, enabling it to achieve such outstanding results as a young university,” said Donal Bradley, vice president for research at KAUST.
“Our international, unencumbered, pioneering and extremely focused approach allows us to continue to push the boundaries of knowledge, while acting as a catalyst for social and economic prosperity in Saudi Arabia and the world.”

The index is a database of author affiliations and institutional relationships. It tracks contributions to research articles published in 82 high-quality natural science journals, chosen by an independent group of researchers.
Established in 2009, KAUST is a graduate research university devoted to finding solutions for some of the world’s most pressing scientific and technological challenges in the areas of food, water, energy and the environment.
With 19 research areas related to these themes and state-of-the-art labs, KAUST has created a collaborative and interdisciplinary problem-solving environment that has resulted in over 11,000 published papers to date.