Providing crucial support to the next generation of entrepreneurs and their business ventures, incubators and accelerators play a pivotal role in innovation initiatives around the world.

At UBI Global we are dedicated to supporting these efforts by mapping incubators and accelerators, highlighting their achievements, analyzing their needs, and providing data-driven recommendations.

The World Benchmark Study is designed to help individual programs in evaluating and improving their own impact and performance, thus becoming more sustainable, effective, and competitive.

The key benefit for most participants is receiving an unbiased, research-driven, third-party assessment of their program’s absolute impact and relative performance. Many programs appreciate the actionable insights and best practices produced by the study. Others value the increased visibility and public recognition of their remarkable efforts – to potential future client startups, partners, investors, and other stakeholders.

All incubators and accelerators that participate in the World Benchmark Study 2019 – 2020 receive:

1. A personalized performance scorecard infographic.
2. The full World Benchmark Report 2019-2020, actionable insights and best practices.
3. Access to an extensive international network of incubators, accelerators, industry associations, corporate partners, research experts, and other key stakeholders through UBI Connect, events, and matchmaking activities.
4. The opportunity to get ranked, recognized, and promoted as a top-performing business incubator or accelerator in a variety of categories.
5. Guaranteed seats at the World Incubation Summit 2019 in Doha, Qatar.
6. The option to acquire additional customized impact and performance reporting materials tailored to different stakeholder and investor communication purposes.

Since 2013, more than 600 incubators and accelerators from over 90 countries have participated in our benchmark studies. Per study, we attract about 300 participants who are eager to understand their impact and performance and share their stories with the larger innovation landscape.

Previous iterations of the World Benchmark Study centered on university-linked incubators and accelerators. This group continues to be our research focus. However, to create a holistic picture of the innovation landscape, we invite public, private, and corporate programs to participate in the World Benchmark Study 2019-2020. To ensure comparability, all programs are ranked and benchmarked within their respective peer groups.

All participants receive a directory of all incubators and accelerators that participated in the WBS1920.

In close collaboration with industry experts from around the world, we have developed a proprietary research framework that measures the impact and performance of business incubators and accelerators in 3 categories and seven 7 subcategories, utilizing 21 key performance indicators (KPIs).

Integrating the latest research, the framework is updated and refined for each iteration of the World Benchmark Study with the help of our Research Advisory Board.

You can find more information about the research here:
Click here to download the research methodology.

A program is ranked depending on:

1. Program type (business incubator, accelerator, or hybrid program) and
2. Program group (university, public, private, or corporate incubator).

Ranking categories and sub-categories vary from study to study, depending on sample size and composition.

Previous rankings and ranking categories can be found here.

You will be able to complete the benchmark survey in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Mandarin. The results will primarily be given in English.

Yes of course, but this should not be necessary. UBI Global’s published rankings only reveal the top 10%-20% in each category. Our research team never reveals the other positions publicly, not even internally to our operations team.

All incubators and accelerators that are ranked below the top-ranked programs are privately informed about their ranking percentile and receive further information about their relative performance in the study.

However, if you still wish to be excluded, just let us know as part of your participation, and we will remove you from our lists.

Your data is the most valuable asset we have. We take data protection and privacy very seriously.

First, we differentiate between profile (or descriptive) data and impact and performance data.
Profile data is usually public information available on your website and other public channels. We standardize this data and make it available to the network as part of best-practice cases, directories, tools, and other services.

We do not publish individual impact and performance data without explicit written approval by the program in question (For instance, top-ranked programs sign a special terms and conditions agreement allowing us to reveal certain data points for recognition purposes). Instead, such data is released in anonymized or aggregate form.

Likewise, UBI Global only complies with third party requests for any kind of individual impact and performance data after informing and receiving an explicit written approval from the program in question.

You can read our full Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy here.

To be eligible for participation in the World Benchmark Study 2019-2020, your program must:

1. Be a business incubator or accelerator according to our definitions (click here)
2. Be a member of our community (click here)

Your individual result will be available in September. Depending on your membership level, the depth of your result delivery varies.

Full information on the different membership levels and benefits can be found here.

The World Incubation Summit 2019 will take place in Doha, Qatar, 04-07 November.

More info here: The World Incubation Summit 2019

There are some deadlines to keep in mind:

• 5 March – We send the benchmark survey out and recommend it be returned within 2 weeks.
• 31 May – The world benchmark closes.

The data verification period occurs right after you send your completed survey

• 1-30 September – Individual benchmark results are delivered. We will deliver all your benchmark related materials at the latest on September 30th. Depending on your membership level, your individual results are to be delivered in various formats. Extensive insights and in-depth analysis are provided to Pro members
• 04-07 November – The official ranking announcement takes place at the World Incubation Summit 2019 in Doha, Qatar. (Registration is not yet open.) We all hope to see you there.

At UBI Global, we do the following:

Step 1 – Assessment
Our operations team interviews all new members with a 30-minute phone call to assess the eligibility of the program. Current members are automatically eligible to participate.

Step 2 – Verification
A PDF verification is sent to all participants to verify with a handwritten signature that the information provided is correct and accurate. In-depth verification and phone interviews are conducted with the top 15% and the bottom 5% of incubators and accelerators.

Step 3 – Analysis
The data is cleaned, translated and shaped to put into our data warehouse for further analysis. Using proprietary framework and research algorithms, results are being produced. Extensive research on the analysis is made internally and with the Research Advisory Board.

Step 4 – Production
Individual scorecard infographics are created for all participants. Individual slide decks are created for Pro Members. Benchmark results are put into the UBI Incubation Data Platform.

Step 5 – Delivery
Top-ranked incubators are informed about their position in early September. All participants receive notification and send-out of their individual results in September. 2-3 weeks post delivery, the UBI Global operations team follow-up on the results given to receive feedback and comments.

To participate in the World Benchmark Study 2019-2020 is free of charge.

If you choose the Standard membership level: rankings, scorecard info graphic, newsletter, and invitation to events are included at no cost.

For more in-depth analysis, digital tools, insights & best practices, corporate visibility, startup activities, guaranteed seats at events and conferences – we recommend selecting Pro membership.

Full information on the different membership levels and benefits can be found here.