High nature value farmlands🌾🌿 play a vital role in sustaining biodiversity by combining traditional farming practices with rich natural habitats. These landscapes support diverse species while maintaining productive agriculture, making them essential for resilient agroecosystems.
Identifying crucial agroecosystems 🔍🌍 helps conservationists prioritize areas that benefit multiple taxa, including plants 🌱, insects 🐝, birds 🐦, and soil organisms. Mapping and monitoring these farmlands guide smarter land-use planning and conservation strategies.
Protecting and promoting high nature value farmlands 🤝♻️ balances food production with ecological health. Policies, farmer incentives, and community engagement ensure long-term conservation, supporting both livelihoods and multi-taxa biodiversity across agricultural landscapes.
🌾 Straw-retained agroecosystemsplay an important role in sustainable farming, but they also influence the spread of antibiotic resistance in soils. Seasonal changes affect how antibiotic resistance genes emerge, persist, and interact within complex soil microbial communities 🦠🌦️.
📊 Studying seasonal dynamics and risk assessmenthelps researchers understand when and where antibiotic resistomes pose the greatest ecological and health risks. By tracking variations across seasons, scientists can identify critical periods for intervention and improved residue management 🌱🔬.🌍 Assessing antibiotic resistome risks supports safer agricultural practices and environmental protection. These insights guide policy, promote responsible straw management, and help balance productivity with public health and ecosystem sustainability 🌾✨.
🌍 The Research Excellence Awardcelebrates scholars whose work creates meaningful, transformative impact across disciplines. This honor recognizes research that advances knowledge, drives innovation, and addresses real-world challenges with lasting scientific and societal value 🏆🔬.
📊 Impactful and transformative research goes beyond publications—it influences policy, industry, technology, and communities. Award recipients demonstrate originality, rigor, and measurable outcomes that shape future research directions and inspire global collaboration 🌱🌐.
🚀 By highlighting excellence in research, this award encourages innovation, interdisciplinary thinking, and responsible science. It supports a culture where breakthrough ideas flourish, empowering researchers to contribute solutions for sustainable development and global progress 🌍✨.
🌾 High Nature Value (HNV) farmlandsare agricultural landscapes that support exceptional biodiversity, including plants, insects, birds, and mammals. These agroecosystems combine traditional farming with rich habitats, making them essential for conserving multiple taxa 🦋🐦.
🌍 Identifying crucial HNV agroecosystems helps scientists and policymakers prioritize areas where conservation and farming can coexist. Mapping these landscapes supports smarter land-use planning, biodiversity protection, and sustainable agricultural policies 📊🌱.🌱 Protecting HNV farmlandsensures long-term ecosystem services such as pollination, soil health, and climate resilience. By valuing biodiversity-friendly farming practices, we can safeguard species diversity while maintaining productive and resilient agricultural systems 🌾✨.
🌱 Cover cropping plays a vital role in improving soil health by fostering rich and diverse microbial communities. Beneficial microbes enhance nutrient availability, soil structure, and biological balance, creating a more resilient foundation for sustainable agriculture in Mississippi agroecosystems 🦠🌾.
📊 Machine learning–based pooled analysis enables researchers to integrate large, complex datasets across locations and seasons. This advanced approach reveals how cover crops consistently improve microbial diversity, stability, and functional performance under varying soil and climate conditions 🤖🌍.
🌾 Healthier soil microbes mean stronger agroecosystemswith better nutrient cycling, reduced erosion, and improved crop productivity. These insights support data-driven farming practices, highlighting cover cropping as a key strategy for long-term soil sustainability and climate-smart agriculture 🌿✨.
🌽 Maize agroecosystems are complex systems influenced by climate variability, soil health, water availability, and biological stresses. Modeling helps researchers understand how these interacting factors affect crop growth, yield, and ecosystem stability under real-world stress conditions like drought, heat, and pests.
🌦️ Agroecosystem modeling and analysis allow scientists and farmers to simulate stress scenarios and predict maize responses before they occur in the field. These tools support better decision-making by optimizing irrigation, nutrient management, and stress-resilient practices to improve productivity and reduce risk 📊.
🌱 Understanding stressed maize dynamics is essential for sustainable agriculture and food security. By integrating data, models, and field observations, researchers can design adaptive strategies that enhance resilience, protect natural resources, and ensure stable maize production in a changing climate 🌍.
Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) award celebrates major contribution to open research infrastructure
London, UK & Berlin, Germany—Wednesday 14 January 2026
Digital Science is pleased to announce that Dr Anita Bandrowski, a researcher dedicated to improving rigor and transparency in scientific literature, has won the 2026 APE Award for Innovation in Scholarly Communication.
The award – supported by Digital Science and the Berlin Institute for Scholarly Publishing (BISP) – is given to an individual who has brought innovation in scholarly communication to the world of research and the academic publishing community. Dr Bandrowski received the award at this week’s Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) conference in Berlin.
A neuroscientist based in San Diego, California, Dr Bandrowski is the CEO and Co-founder of the research infrastructure and discovery platform SciCrunch, which aims to improve scientific transparency and reproducibility through the use of persistent identifiers for biological resources, known as research resource identifiers (RRIDs), and the tool SciScore, which helps journals publish more transparent and rigorous papers that adhere to standards, including the RRID standard.
Under her leadership, more than 1,000 journals have adopted the use of RRIDs by their authors, and there are now more than a million discoverable RRIDs in scientific literature. As well as advancing scientific discovery, her work and that of SciCrunch also supports research integrity.
As the winner, Dr Bandrowski receives a €1,000 prize, as well as travel support and free attendance to the APE conference.
Dr Bandrowski said: “I am grateful for this fantastic award, which highlights not only the key role that RRIDs play in improving reproducibility but also shines a light on the critical role that reagents play in science.”
Digital Science CEO Dr Daniel Hook, who presented the award at the conference in Berlin, said: “The judges were impressed by Anita’s impact on scientific rigor and reproducibility through her leadership at SciCrunch, which was established 10 years ago and has since made an important contribution to the long-term integrity of the scholarly record. Anita herself has been working in the field of open research infrastructure for more than 20 years, and that experience has shone through in her commitment to improving the discovery and reuse of biological resources within scholarly communication. We congratulate Anita and are proud to recognize her achievements with this award.”
Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, funders, industry and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, Overleaf, ReadCube, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.
Media contact
David Ellis, Press, PR & Social Manager, Digital Science: Mobile +61 447 783 023, d.ellis@digital-science.com
🌞 Understanding Solar Irradiance Through Spectral Measurement
Spectral measurement of Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) plays a vital role in evaluating the quality and intensity of sunlight ☀️📡. By analyzing how solar energy is distributed across different wavelengths, researchers gain deeper insights into atmospheric effects, weather variations, and solar resource availability for efficient photovoltaic (PV) system planning ⚡🔍.
📊 Clustering Analysis for Smarter Solar Insights
Clustering techniques help categorize GHI spectral data into meaningful patterns based on time, weather, and seasonal behavior 📈🧠. This data-driven grouping reveals recurring irradiance trends, enabling accurate solar forecasting, performance optimization, and intelligent energy management for solar power systems 🌤️⚙️.
🌍 Impact on Sustainable Solar Energy Applications
Combining spectral measurement with clustering analysis enhances solar energy reliability and sustainability 🌱✨. These insights support improved PV design, predictive maintenance, and long-term energy planning, contributing to cleaner energy adoption and a resilient renewable future 🔋🌞.
2025 Rankings Highlight Strong Focus on Sustainability in R&D: Half of the Patent Areas on the Top 10 Fastest Growing Technologies Relate to Batteries. Recovering Usable Material From Waste Also Figures Prominently, According to Annual Patent Study by IFI CLAIMS
New Haven, Conn., 13 January 2026
After seven years of growth, U.S. patent applications headed sharply downward, dropping 9% from 2024, the lowest level since 2019. Other 2025 results show a slight decline in the number of U.S. patents granted, down less than 1% from 324,064 in 2024 to 323,272 in 2025. Samsung retained the top spot for the fourth year, according to IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, the world’s most trusted patent data source.
IFI CLAIMS Patent Services is a Digital Science company that compiles and tracks data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and other patent-issuing agencies around the globe. IFI translates its world-leading data into an annual U.S. Top 50 and Top 10 Fastest Growing Technologies patent ranking, providing valuable insights into companies’ R&D activity.
Samsung, TSMC, and Qualcomm all retain the same top three standings from the previous year. IBM slipped another three rungs, falling out of the Top 10 and settling into eleventh. Big Blue held top billing for a record 29 consecutive years, but the company intentionally implemented a more selective patenting policy and was displaced by Samsung three years ago. Chinese tech giant Huawei moved up a spot into fourth place, according to the 2025 U.S. Top 50 ranking. Apple moved down two positions to sixth place.
“It’s very interesting to see patent applications take such a dive after a long climb upward,” said Lily Iacurci, Marketing Manager, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services. “We will be watching the data to see if a trend develops. Right now, we’re wondering if other companies are quietly adopting patent strategies similar to the one IBM announced a few years ago. Are R&D departments relying more on trade secrets to protect IP? Or is it a lingering impact from COVID?”
How Companies With Patents Stacked Up
Samsungmaintained its lead with 7,054 patent grants in 2025, more than two percent of all patents granted in the U.S. last year. That’s up from 6,377 grants in 2024, an advance of 11% year over year. TSMC earned 4,194 grants compared to 3,989 patents the previous year, 5% higher. Qualcomm won 3,749 patents in 2025, up from 3,422 in 2024, but still below the company’s highpoint of 3,854 two years ago. Apple, a Magnificent 7 company, took home fewer grants in 2025: 2,722, down from 3,082 the previous year, a 12% slide. So did Google and Amazon, which descended the ranking by four and two places, respectively. Microsoft held steady. As for Tesla, Nvidia, and Meta, none of them collected enough grants to make Top 50 grade. The biggest climber on the ranking: South Korean battery technology company LG Energy Solution, jumping 22 positions.
A number of car manufacturers overtook other companies on the list. Toyota raced ahead six places on the ranking, coming in eighth. Honda passed by others and rose seven places. Kia, Hyundai, and GM also moved up. Ford, on the other hand, got lapped, falling 12 positions.
Patents Continue Rising in the East, While U.S. Sees Decline
Parsing the Top 50 by continent: Asia takes up 60% of the patent pie today, compared to 48% in 2016, a long-term shift from west to east. When looking beyond the Top 50 to include the total number of grants awarded at the country level, American companies secured the highest number of patents (136,131), by far. But that number doesn’t tell the entire story. More than half of U.S. patents were protected by companies outside of the U.S. Companies from Japan received 42,971 grants, followed by China (30,913), South Korea (26,147) and Germany (14,150). Six of the top 10 countries increased their number of grants in 2025. Taiwan rose by more than 12%, while China rose by more than 9% and South Korea by more than 8%. The U.S. was the biggest decliner, falling by 5% last year.
Fastest Growing Technologies Point to Sustainability
For the second year in a row, the fastest growing technology is “operating or servicing of cells,” which rose by more than 23% from 2021-2025. Advancements in this area relate to electrolysis, which is important to the production of green hydrogen. In fact, five of the 10 technologies this year feature batteries or the electrolytic processes around them, which are important for diversifying energy sources away from fossil fuel. Other technologies revolve around the need to reduce waste.
Recovery of waste materials makes its second appearance this year (CAGR 20.4%), as does reclaiming non-ferrous metals from scrap (CAGR 18.2%). Refinement and reuse of metals also plays a part in two other fast-growing technologies: pretreatment of ores or scrap and hydrometallurgy. Both of these areas of invention attempt to mitigate damage to the environment. Just one technology on the list falls outside of the theme of a circular economy: Bioinformatics, the combination of computing with biological data to improve health outcomes.
IFI’s fastest growing technology ranking is based on USPTO patent applications. Applications are a better proxy than grants for technologies that are current hotbeds because the lag time is significantly shorter.
“Applications are an important indicator for investors to watch,” said Iacurci. “In our previous fastest growing technology rankings, the indications of the current AI revolution were present. Today, the applications are signaling toward ways to increase energy diversification and decrease strain on the environment.”
Patent activity provides valuable insight into companies’ R&D activity for researchers, analysts, and investors. It speaks to productivity, technological efficiency and IP strategy, and frequently reveals technology trends and the competitive landscape within various industries. Often the true value of a company lies with its intellectual properties, so examining patent assets is a key tool in gauging the intangible assets of publicly traded companies.
About IFI CLAIMS Patent Services
IFI CLAIMS Patent Services uses proprietary data architecture to produce the industry’s most accurate global patent database. The CLAIMS Direct platform allows for the easy integration of applications, other data sets, and analysis software. IFI CLAIMS is part of Digital Science, a digital research technology company based in London. For more information, visit www.ificlaims.com and follow IFI on LinkedIn.
About Digital Science
Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, government, funders, industry, and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, Overleaf, ReadCube, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.
Media contact
David Ellis, Press, PR & Social Manager, Digital Science: Mobile +61 447 783 023, d.ellis@digital-science.com
Autonomous vehicles must make fast, accurate, and safe decisions in highly dynamic environments. By integrating large language models (LLMs) with deep reinforcement learning (DRL), vehicles gain high-level reasoning abilities alongside low-level control intelligence, enabling better understanding of traffic rules, context, and human behavior 🚦📊.
LLM-guided DRL enhances decision-making by translating complex driving scenarios into meaningful actions. The LLM provides strategic guidance and interpretable instructions, while DRL optimizes real-time responses through continuous learning 🚘⚙️. This collaboration improves adaptability, reduces uncertainty, and strengthens safety in unpredictable road conditions 🛡️🛣️.
Together, LLMs and DRL create safer, more human-aligned autonomous systems. This approach supports explainable decisions, ethical driving behavior, and robust risk management, paving the way for trustworthy self-driving vehicles in real-world environments 🌍✅🚙
🧠 Understanding Shared Decision-Making in Carotid Disease
Shared decision-making (SDM) is a collaborative approach where clinicians and patients work together to choose the best treatment for carotid disease. By combining medical evidence with patient values, SDM promotes transparency, trust, and personalized care, ensuring patients feel informed and confident. 🤝📘
📊 Role of Decision Aids in Clinical Practice
Decision aids such as visual charts, risk calculators, and simplified guides help patients clearly understand treatment options, including medical therapy, surgery, or monitoring. These tools explain risks and benefits in an easy format, reducing confusion and supporting meaningful discussions. 🩺📈
❤️ Improving Outcomes Through Informed Choices
When patients actively participate in decisions, adherence to treatment improves and anxiety decreases. Shared decision-making supported by decision aids leads to better satisfaction, safer choices, and outcomes aligned with individual goals, making carotid disease management more effective and patient-centered. 🌟🧠
🔥 Non-premixed combustion relies heavily on accurate mixture fraction definitions to describe how fuel and oxidizer mix before reacting. Key properties such as boundedness and monotonicity ensure that the mixture fraction remains within physical limits and varies smoothly between fuel-rich and oxidizer-rich regions, enabling stable and realistic flame modeling.
⚗️ Stoichiometry preservation is equally critical, as it guarantees that the defined mixture fraction correctly identifies the stoichiometric surface where optimal combustion occurs. When this condition is met, numerical simulations can precisely capture reaction zones, heat release, and species formation, improving prediction reliability in complex turbulent flows.
📊 By studying and validating these properties, researchers enhance the physical consistency and robustness of combustion models. Such improvements support advanced simulations for industrial burners, gas turbines, and energy systems, contributing to cleaner combustion, improved efficiency, and reduced emissions 🌱🔥.
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