Aenert news. Invention analysis
For the last 12 years, Clarivate, a British-American analytics company, has annually published a ranking of companies and institutions of the most successful and innovative companies around the world. The ranking features well-known innovators which are major players in the international markets as well as such which have just entered the global stage.

To put together the ranking, the companies are first identified and then evaluated by means of a comparative analysis of global invention data to make out the impact of their patented ideas. For this purpose, Clarivate has established qualification criteria based on volume of inventive activity, including e.g. the number of granted patents (more than 100 granted inventions in the 2023 five-year evaluation window). Also, innovators are compared on the number of inventions patented at different international patent offices. The complete list of metrics on which the inventions are scored include Influence, Success, Globalisation and Rarity. Finally, innovators are also ranked based on their Invention Strength score. All inventions are evaluated using the Derwent World Patents Index™ (DWPI™) as source of global patent data.

This year (2023), the report for the first time includes not only insights from Clarivate on inventive activity but also scientific discovery to better track the flow of modern innovation. This helped identify the 50 research organizations most often cited by the Top 100 Global Innovators 2023. The full Top 100 Global Innovators 2023 Report is published on the Clarivate website.

This year, a sharp improvement in the ranking of government and academic institutions can be witnessed. Although Mainland China suffered a reduction in its Top 100 representation, an overall average ranking improvement is seen for this country in 2023. Other regions and nations located in Asia, such as the Asia Pacific regions, too are exhibiting strong performance increases. For example, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan have all gained positions in the ranking.

Five companies have joined the list for the first time: AAC Technologies from Mainland China, Nanya Technology and Winbond Electronics from Taiwan, Nidec from Japan and Otis Worldwide from the United States.

The first five spots are occupied by two Asian, two European and one US company. The first position is claimed by 3M, an American multinational conglomerate operating in the fields of industry, worker safety, healthcare, and consumer goods. 2^nd and 3^rd positions are held by the Chinese company AAC Technologies, specialising in electronics and computing equipment, and ABB, a Swiss company producing industrial equipment. With a keen interest in environmental issues, ABB has built and launched innovative methane-measuring sensors which are making a valuable contribution to monitoring methane emissions around the globe as they are orbiting the Earth on board satellites. In the field of transportation, its Onboard DC Grid™, a flexible power distribution system, helps making sea travel and transportation more efficient. Places 4 and 5 are occupied by ACG, a Japanese chemicals company, and Airbus. Positions 5 to 10 are also dominated by tech companies, including for example Applied Materials, ASML or AUO, all of which specialise in electrical or electronical engineering.

Among the newcomers to the ranking, Japanese Nidec should be mentioned, a manufacturer and distributor of electric motors. Among its most innovative products the EV Traction Motor System E-Axle can be found, which combines a motor, an inverter, and a reducer and, when supplied with electricity, generates rotating torque from the drive shaft connected to tires which drives the vehicle.

In general, the ranking and accompanying report show that it is the innovative companies which shape our future, especially if they invest heavily into employing researchers as well as engineering solutions. Thus, they do not only provide innovative new ideas to solve current problems but also pave the way to better living and increasing the health of our habitats.