Sector index · Frontier technologies · 2026
Security, privacy, cryptography and distributed ledgers.
Provisional: only 21 universities are eligible in this sector, so positions move more with small changes in evidence. Ranked universities have at least 20 verified industry works in this sector (2021-2025). Score: volume 30%, reach 25% (company groups with 2+ joint works), repeat partnerships 25% (3+ works over 2+ years) and network influence 20%, each as a percentile within this sector's pool of 21.
| # | University | Country | Score | Works | Partners | Leading partners |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications | China | 97.0 | 82 | 11 | China MobileSTATE-OWNED, State Grid Corporation of ChinaSTATE-OWNED, China TelecomSTATE-OWNED |
| 2 | Tsinghua University | China | 89.9 | 50 | 9 | Alibaba Group, Huawei Technologies, Microsoft |
| 3 | University of Electronic Science and Technology of China | China | 85.2 | 49 | 7 | China Electronics Technology Group CorporationSTATE-OWNED, China Southern Power GridSTATE-OWNED, China TelecomSTATE-OWNED |
| 4 | Xidian University | China | 83.7 | 44 | 10 | Huawei Technologies, China MobileSTATE-OWNED, China Electronics Technology Group CorporationSTATE-OWNED |
| 5 | Wuhan University | China | 75.8 | 39 | 7 | State Grid Corporation of ChinaSTATE-OWNED, Huawei Technologies, China Southern Power GridSTATE-OWNED |
| 6 | Zhejiang University | China | 75.7 | 51 | 6 | Alibaba Group, State Grid Corporation of ChinaSTATE-OWNED, Huawei Technologies |
| 7 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | China | 57.9 | 32 | 6 | Huawei Technologies, Tencent, State Grid Corporation of ChinaSTATE-OWNED |
| 8 | University of Chinese Academy of Sciences | China | 57.6 | 30 | 7 | Huawei Technologies, Mininglamp, China MobileSTATE-OWNED |
| 9 | Northeastern University | China | 53.5 | 32 | 6 | State Grid Corporation of ChinaSTATE-OWNED, Neusoft, PowerChinaSTATE-OWNED |
| 10 | Xi'an Jiaotong University | China | 53.0 | 36 | 5 | State Grid Corporation of ChinaSTATE-OWNED, China Southern Power GridSTATE-OWNED, Alibaba Group |
| 11 | Nanyang Technological University | Singapore | 40.8 | 34 | 5 | Huawei Technologies, Alibaba Group, Tencent |
| 12 | University of Waterloo | Canada | 40.4 | 23 | 6 | Huawei Technologies, Orange, Google |
| 13 | North China Electric Power University | China | 39.0 | 36 | 2 | State Grid Corporation of ChinaSTATE-OWNED, China TelecomSTATE-OWNED, China Aerospace Science and Industry CorporationSTATE-OWNED |
| 14 | Southeast University | China | 35.0 | 27 | 4 | State Grid Corporation of ChinaSTATE-OWNED, China Electronics Technology Group CorporationSTATE-OWNED, China MobileSTATE-OWNED |
| 15 | Harbin Institute of Technology | China | 33.6 | 24 | 4 | China MobileSTATE-OWNED, State Grid Corporation of ChinaSTATE-OWNED, Inner Mongolia Electric Power |
| 16 | Guangzhou University | China | 30.8 | 21 | 6 | China MobileSTATE-OWNED, Tencent, Hikvision |
| 17 | Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics | China | 29.3 | 24 | 6 | State Grid Corporation of ChinaSTATE-OWNED, Qingdao Penghai Software, China Electronics Technology Group CorporationSTATE-OWNED |
| 18 | Peking University | China | 25.7 | 24 | 5 | Alibaba Group, China MobileSTATE-OWNED, China TelecomSTATE-OWNED |
| 19 | Sun Yat-sen University | China | 20.8 | 21 | 5 | Alibaba Group, China MobileSTATE-OWNED, Microsoft |
| 20 | KU Leuven | Belgium | 16.7 | 20 | 4 | NXP, Atos, Ericsson |
| 21 | Tianjin University | China | 8.6 | 21 | 2 | State Grid Corporation of ChinaSTATE-OWNED, Tianjin Research Institute of Electric ScienceSTATE-OWNED, China MobileSTATE-OWNED |
Leading partners: up to three company groups with the most joint works in the sector. State-owned enterprises are marked; a partner whose name is withheld is not listed.
Funded partnerships (reported, not scored). 60 UK and EU projects starting 2021 to 2025 (23 UKRI, 37 Horizon) involve a cohort university and a company group whose main sector, by its verified joint works, is this one (106 universities): most often Sidroco Holdings, Sensata Technologies, Sustainable Innovation, Eulambia Advanced Technologies, Cybernetica. Sources: UKRI Gateway to Research harvested 4 Oct 2026; CORDIS bulk files of 2026-10-12 (latest record update 2026-06-10). Funded partnerships cover UK (UKRI Gateway to Research) and EU (Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, CORDIS) projects starting 2021 to 2025 only. They are reported, never scored, and a funder record outside these two sources is not visible here.
Advanced Authentication Protocols Security; Advanced Malware Detection Techniques; Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques; Biometric Identification and Security; Blockchain Technology Applications and Security; Blockchain Technology in Education and Learning; Chaos-based Image/Signal Encryption; Cloud Data Security Solutions; Coding theory and cryptography; Cryptographic Implementations and Security; Cryptography and Data Security; Cryptography and Residue Arithmetic; Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies; Cybersecurity and Information Systems; Digital Rights Management and Security; Digital and Cyber Forensics; Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection; IPv6, Mobility, Handover, Networks, Security; Information and Cyber Security; Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting; Network Security and Intrusion Detection; Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security; Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data; Security and Verification in Computing; Security in Wireless Sensor Networks; Smart Grid Security and Resilience; Spam and Phishing Detection; Technology and Security Systems; User Authentication and Security Systems; Web Application Security Vulnerabilities; Wireless Communication Security Techniques
Open data
The full Cybersecurity and Digital Trust ranking (rank, university, country, score, sector works, partners and leading partners) as an Excel workbook. Every other index is in the all-indices workbook.
Released under CC BY 4.0: reuse freely with attribution to the Industry Collaboration Index, Global Research Partnerships. How it is measured.