Taiwan’s ITRI and Hon Hai make the list of 2017 top 100 global innovators

　Clarivate Analytics, the US information service firm, released the 2017 Top 100 Global Innovators Report on January 25, 2018.  According to the Report, 45 organizations in Asia were named the world’s top 100 innovators, up 15% compared to 2016.  Asia is the region that has the most organizations on the list. 

　Taiwan has had a presence on the list for five straight years.  In the 2017 annual survey, Taiwan continued its presence with ITRI and Hon Hai (also known as Foxconn Technology) this year, while the latter was a newcomer on the list.  Hon Hai’s debut on the list features the influential innovations it has continued to create in the past five years in the area of information technology and its active protection implemented by patent filings around the world.  On the other hand, ITRI returned to the list since 2014 and it is also one of the three government-run academic organizations that made the list. 

　As a result of ITRI’s five-year sustained devotion to innovative research and developments, ITRI’s patents have been frequently cited by third parties (without self-citations), and therefore, ITRI shined in the criterion of influence in 2017.  This result also demonstrates ITRI’s R&D energy and power in impacting future technological developments.  In addition, ITRI also made progress in the criterion of globalization, which manifests ITRI’s global vision of its patent portfolio. 

　Launched since 2011, the Top 100 Global Innovator Report has been engaged in identifying the most innovative organizations around the world that are active and innovative in R&D, IPR protection, and successful commercialization.  The selected organizations in 2017 came from three main continents across eleven sectors.  As revealed in the annual survey, Japan and the US are the two main innovative hubs as 75% of the selected innovative organizations came from the two nations.  Moreover, 85% of the named organizations made their reappearance on the list in 2017, while there were six organizations getting their entries in the list for the first time, which are Facebook, Fuji Electric, Hon Hai, Molex, Nichia, and Western Digital.  (January 2018) 
/CCS