The 50 most innovative universities in the world

Universities are hotbeds of innovation, the places where research is conducted and ideas tested until they can be put out into the world.

But ranking the "most innovative" academic institutions is difficult - how do you measure a school's impact on science, technology, and the global economy?

To answer that question, researchers at Thompson Reuters counted the academic papers published and patents filed by institutions around the globe in order to come up with the 100 most innovative universities.

We've selected the top 50 for our graphic below, but you can check out the full list at Reuters.

The patents filed and papers published methodology was meant to find the places that "most reliably produce original research, create useful technology, and have the greatest economic impact," Reuters explains. That's why Stanford, a center for research and invention, with 594 patents filed between 2008 and 2013 (of which 40.1% were granted), scores as the most innovative university in the world.

This is a different approach than the one US News and World Report took for ranking the most innovative schools in the US. Their selection, decided by college presidents, deans, and admissions officers, had Stanford coming in second, losing to Arizona State University (ASU ranks 86th globally in the Reuters rankings).

See if your school falls in the top 50 below, and here's a link to a more detailed explanation of how the schools were scored.

Skye Gould/Tech Insider