Sector index · Frontier technologies · 2026
Quantum computing, quantum communication and cryptography, and quantum sensing.
Provisional: only 40 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 40.
| # | University | Country | Score | Works | Partners | Leading partners |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California Institute of Technology | United States | 97.8 | 92 | 19 | Google, Amazon, Microsoft |
| 2 | University of Chicago | United States | 92.2 | 64 | 15 | Google, Microsoft, HRL Laboratories |
| 3 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 89.1 | 62 | 11 | NTT, Fujitsu, Judd Systems Technologies |
| 4 | Harvard University | United States | 87.8 | 64 | 12 | QuEra Computing, Google, Nvidia |
| 5 | University of Maryland, College Park | United States | 83.6 | 68 | 10 | IonQ, Google, Microsoft |
| 6 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 82.8 | 56 | 11 | Quantum Motion Technologies, Cambridge Quantum Computing, ByteDance |
| 7 | University of Science and Technology of China | China | 82.7 | 69 | 8 | Origin Quantum Computing Technology Company, QuantumCTek, China MobileSTATE-OWNED |
| 8 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | United States | 81.1 | 62 | 10 | Google, QuEra Computing, IBM |
| 9 | Tsinghua University | China | 80.1 | 52 | 12 | Tencent, China MobileSTATE-OWNED, Huawei Technologies |
| 10 | Sorbonne Université | France | 79.1 | 54 | 11 | Thales, Alice & Bob, Quandela |
| 11 | University of California, Berkeley | United States | 78.1 | 54 | 11 | Google, Amazon, Microsoft |
| 12 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 67.1 | 44 | 7 | Hitachi, Toshiba, Phasecraft Ltd. |
| 13 | Universität Innsbruck | Austria | 63.9 | 38 | 10 | Alpine Quantum Technologies, Google, QuEra Computing |
| 14 | University College London | United Kingdom | 59.6 | 32 | 8 | Phasecraft Ltd., Quantum Motion Technologies, Cambridge Quantum Computing |
| 15 | The University of Osaka | Japan | 58.6 | 37 | 7 | NTT, QunaSys, Mercari |
| 16 | University of Waterloo | Canada | 58.1 | 39 | 7 | IBM, Google, 1QBit |
| 17 | Université Paris-Saclay | France | 55.4 | 36 | 5 | Quandela, Pasqal, Vinci |
| 18 | University of Colorado Boulder | United States | 54.5 | 32 | 7 | IBM, Quantinuum, Aliro Technologies |
| 19 | Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications | China | 48.6 | 32 | 5 | Huawei Technologies, China TelecomSTATE-OWNED, China MobileSTATE-OWNED |
| 20 | Keio University | Japan | 46.7 | 28 | 8 | Mizuho, Mitsubishi Chemical, Mizuho Research & Technologies |
| 21 | Peking University | China | 46.4 | 26 | 7 | ByteDance, Beijing Institute of Radio Metrology and MeasurementSTATE-OWNED, Huawei Technologies |
| 22 | University of Toronto | Canada | 42.8 | 29 | 8 | Google, Zapata, Boehringer Ingelheim |
| 23 | Technical University of Munich | Germany | 41.4 | 32 | 5 | BMW Group, Adva Network Security, Rohde & Schwarz |
| 24 | Leiden University | Netherlands | 41.4 | 24 | 8 | Volkswagen Group, Google, BMW Group |
| 25 | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Germany | 41.2 | 28 | 6 | Rohde & Schwarz, IQM, BMW Group |
| 26 | Duke University | United States | 38.8 | 28 | 5 | IonQ, Google, Microsoft |
| 27 | ETH Zurich | Switzerland | 37.5 | 28 | 5 | Microsoft, Alpine Quantum Technologies, IBM |
| 28 | Princeton University | United States | 27.9 | 21 | 9 | Google, IonQ, SC Solutions |
| 29 | Imperial College London | United Kingdom | 27.6 | 26 | 6 | Toshiba, Airbus, Goldman Sachs |
| 30 | RWTH Aachen University | Germany | 26.6 | 30 | 4 | Alpine Quantum Technologies, Amazon, Boehringer Ingelheim |
| 31 | University of Chinese Academy of Sciences | China | 26.2 | 24 | 4 | China Electronics Technology Group CorporationSTATE-OWNED, China MobileSTATE-OWNED, Tencent |
| 32 | University of Bristol | United Kingdom | 25.4 | 24 | 4 | Phasecraft Ltd., Toshiba, Microsoft |
| 33 | Delft University of Technology | Netherlands | 21.1 | 24 | 4 | Intel, Element Six, HRL Laboratories |
| 34 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | United States | 20.4 | 24 | 5 | ColdQuanta, Google, HRL Laboratories |
| 35 | Stanford University | United States | 19.8 | 24 | 5 | Google, NTT, QC Ware |
| 36 | Université Paris Sciences et Lettres | France | 16.6 | 24 | 3 | Thales, Alice & Bob, Quandela |
| 37 | National University of Singapore | Singapore | 16.2 | 24 | 4 | Foxconn, Tencent, NTT |
| 38 | Université Paris Cité | France | 14.9 | 24 | 5 | Quandela, Total, Roche |
| 39 | Yale University | United States | 11.2 | 22 | 5 | Amazon, Google, IBM |
| 40 | École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | Switzerland | 9.5 | 20 | 4 | IBM, Microsoft, QunaSys |
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). 165 UK and EU projects starting 2021 to 2025 (99 UKRI, 66 Horizon) involve a cohort university and a company group whose main sector, by its verified joint works, is this one (198 universities): most often CamGraPhIC, Single Quantum, Menlo Systems, Quandela, ID Quantique. 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 Frequency and Time Standards; Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates; Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture; Quantum Information and Cryptography; Quantum optics and atomic interactions
Open data
The full Quantum Technologies 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.