After featuring in 30 disciplines in 2025—with 10 disciplines in the global top 100 and 19 in the French top 5—Université Grenoble Alpes confirms the broad scope of its scientific reach in 2026 with 31 ranked disciplines, including 11 in the global top 100.

It is thus one of four French universities with more than 10 disciplines ranked in the top 100 of the Shanghai subject-based rankings, alongside three Parisian universities: Paris-Saclay, Sorbonne University, and Paris Cité. It also ranks 14 times in the top 5 in France, including three first-place national rankings in remote sensing, automation and control, and geography. Of note is UGA’s global visibility in two new disciplines: mining and mineral engineering and medical technology.

These results reinforce UGA’s standing among France’s leading research universities and underscore the value of its partnership with, in particular, Grenoble INP–UGA, which contributes to UGA’s achievements in engineering research.

More broadly, it is the quality and diversity of UGA’s scientific output—driven by an ecosystem that brings together the university and national research organizations—that is recognized in this latest edition of the Shanghai Thematic Ranking.

A commitment to excellence grounded in interdisciplinary approaches

The diversity of disciplines in which UGA is ranked reflects one of the key priorities of its scientific policy: fostering dialogue among disciplines and scientific communities to address complex issues that cannot be tackled through a single scientific approach.

This ambition is reflected in particular in the Cross-Disciplinary Programs (CDP), created in 2016 as part of the Initiative of Excellence (Idex). Over the past ten years, these programs have become a cornerstone of the scientific policy at the Grenoble campus. Their goal is to transcend the boundaries between disciplines, laboratories, and institutions in order to foster new areas of research and build sustainable interdisciplinary scientific communities.

In 2026, the UGA accredited seven new cross-disciplinary programs, covering topics as diverse as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), sustainable materials, space applications, focused ultrasound in neurology, cellulose-based materials, sustainable automotive electronics, and the evolution of snow.

These new programs draw on expertise from fields such as environmental science, chemistry, physics, engineering, health, the humanities and social sciences, and digital sciences. They demonstrate the UGA’s commitment to using interdisciplinarity as a tool to generate new knowledge and address major scientific, technological, environmental, health, and societal challenges.

The continuation of four Cross-Disciplinary Programs launched in 2022—DefiCO2, MUSITOX2, PowerAlps, and SPORT PERF HEALTH 2.0—along with the seven new programs accredited in 2026, brings the total number of CDPs in this new phase to eleven.

A long-term scientific initiative

Beyond its results in international rankings, this momentum is built on a particularly rich scientific ecosystem centered around Université Grenoble Alpes and the national research organizations located on its campus.

This policy aims to foster new collaborations, bring together scientific communities that typically work in different fields, and establish interdisciplinary centers capable of addressing major contemporary challenges in all their dimensions.

Through its performance in the 2026 Shanghai Ranking of Academic Subjects, Université Grenoble Alpes confirms both the strength of its disciplinary expertise and its ability to foster dialogue among them. This complementarity is one of the major assets of its research and contributes to its international scientific reputation.

Of the 57 disciplines evaluated, UGA is ranked 31 times, including 11 times in the top 100

Subject	Rank	Position
Remote Sensing	20th (-6)	No.1 university in France
Earth Sciences	33rd (-12)	4th-ranked university in France
Automation and Control	51–75 (++)	1 Ranking -4 of French universities
Mathematics	51–75 (=)	5 Ranking -6 of French universities
Geography	76–100 (++)	No.1 university in France
Metallurgical Engineering	76–100 (=)	2 Ranking -4 of French universities
Clinical Medicine	76–100 (=)	3 Ranking -4 of French universities
Mining & Mineral Engineering	76–100 (new)	4th-ranked university in France
Atmospheric Science	76–100 (=)	5 Ranking -7 of French universities
Ecology	76–100 (=)	6 Ranking -7 of French universities
Physics	76–100 (-)	7th-ranked university in France
Electrical and Electronic Engineering	101–150 (=)	2nd-ranked university in France
Oceanography	101–150 (-)	8 Ranking -10 of French universities
Water Resources	151–200 (-)	2 Ranking -6 of French universities
Computer Science and Engineering	151–200 (-)	3 Ranking -5 of French universities
Materials Science and Engineering	201–300 (-)	3 Ranking -5 of French universities
Science and Technology Instruments	201–300 (=)	2 Ranking -3 of French universities
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology	201–300 (=)	2 Ranking -5 of French universities
Energy Science & Engineering	201-300	2 Ranking -4 of French universities
Artificial Intelligence	201–300 (=)	4 Ranking -5 of French universities
Chemistry	201–300 (=)	7 Ranking -11 of French universities
Biological Sciences	201–300 (=)	8 Ranking -9 of French universities
Statistics	201–300 (=)	9 Ranking -16 of French universities
Medical technology	201–300 (new)	12 Ranking -20 of French universities
Mechanical Engineering	201–300 (=)	13 Ranking -19 of French universities
Civil Engineering	301–400 (=)	1 Ranking -4 of French universities
Environmental Science and Engineering	301–400 (-)	5 Ranking -10 of French universities
Psychology	301–400 (=)	6 Ranking -9 of French universities
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	301–400 (=)	7 Ranking -11 of French universities
Public Health	301–400 (=)	9 Ranking -10 of French universities
Human Biological Sciences	301–400 (=)	11 Ranking -14 of French universities

Legend: = rank of 2,024; +: up one rank; ++: up two ranks; -: down one rank; --: down two ranks