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Industry Collaboration Index

Industry Collaboration Index 2026 · University profile

Cornell University

United States · North America · Platinum

★ Sector Awards 2026. Finalist: the Global Industry Partnership of the Year (with AstraZeneca; Ghassan K. Abou‐Alfa and Alejandra Negro); the Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics Award (with Eli Lilly; Alexander Edward Dela Cruz Drilon and Victoria Soldatenkova).

#22World rank of 1,038
83.7ICI scoreout of 100
#8National rank, of 203 in United States
#8Regional rank, of 231 in North America
4,301.5Verified industry works, 2021 to 2025
1,448Company groups worked with (573 on two or more works)

Cornell University is ranked #22 of 1,038, with Platinum standing. Its strongest pillar is co-creation (100): 4,301.5 verified industry works against about 1,397 expected for its mix of fields. It is held back most by breadth (30): partners concentrated in a few research fields.

Research Collaboration Index 2026: #40 of 1,195, Platinum standing · View the RCI profile →

Why this position

Four pillars, as percentiles

Co-creation30% of the score
100

How often it co-authors with companies, compared with what its own mix of research fields would predict; size makes no difference. 4,301.5 verified works against about 1,397 expected for its fields (3.08 times the expected rate).

Durability20% of the score
91

How much of its industry work sits in sustained partnerships with the same company group. 178 sustained partnerships: five or more joint works in three or more of the five years.

Scale30% of the score
98

The size of its industry network: company groups on two or more works, sustained partnerships, and its place in the worldwide network of universities and companies. 573 company groups on two or more joint works; 178 sustained partnerships.

Breadth20% of the score
30

How varied its partners are, judged by each company's main research field. Measured across the main research fields of all the company groups it worked with.

Each pillar is a percentile among the 1,038 ranked universities: a value of 80 means a higher value than about 80 in every 100 of them. The ICI score (83.7) is the weighted average of the four percentiles. Rank 22 of 1,038 overall; 8 of 203 in United States; 8 of 231 in North America. Standing bands: Platinum for ranks 1 to 100, Gold 101 to 300, Silver 301 to 600. How the index is built →

In numbers

The evidence behind the position

10.7%of its 40,173 research works in 2021 to 2025 were co-authored with a verified company
3.08Industry co-authorship rate: 3.08 times what its mix of research fields would predict (4,301.5 verified works; about 1,397 expected)
178sustained partnerships: the same company group on five or more joint works in three or more of the five years

In United States

8 of 203 ranked universities in United States

  1. #6 University of Washington world #16, score 85.0
  2. #7 University of California San Diego world #19, score 84.6
  3. #8 Cornell University world #22, score 83.7
  4. #9 University of Michigan world #27, score 82.3
  5. #10 University of Colorado Boulder world #30, score 81.8

All ranked universities →   North America: 8 of 231 →

Where it works with industry

Sector strengths

Verified industry works by sector, with its position in each sector ranking. A university is ranked in a sector once it has at least 20 verified works there; sectors with fewer than 50 eligible universities are provisional.

Strongest sector positions

#7 of 638Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics1,112 verified works in the sector
#11 of 323Medical Technology and Digital Health181 verified works in the sector
#15 of 220Biotechnology and Advanced Therapies124 verified works in the sector
Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics
1,112#7 of 638
Medical Technology and Digital Health
181#11 of 323
Biotechnology and Advanced Therapies
124#15 of 220
Agriculture and Food Technology
112#18 of 194
Artificial Intelligence
103#55 of 292
Climate, Environment and Sustainability
77.5#71 of 373
Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
60.5#198 of 481
Software, Cloud and Data
50.5#51 of 167
Semiconductors and Microelectronics
28.5#47 of 109
Clean Energy Transition
16under 20 works
Next-Generation Communications
16under 20 works
Chemicals, Process and Resources
13.5under 20 works
Quantum Technologies
13.5under 20 works
Advanced Manufacturing and Industry 4.0
11.5under 20 works
Batteries and Energy Storage
7.5under 20 works
Built Environment and Infrastructure
5.5under 20 works
Cybersecurity and Digital Trust
5under 20 works
Automotive and Mobility
5under 20 works
Space and Satellite Technology
3under 20 works
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
1.5ranking withheld (under 10 eligible)
Not in any of the 21 sectors
2,350.5counted in the overall index

1,951 of its 4,301.5 verified industry works fall within the 21 sectors. The rest have research topics that belong to no industry sector (basic science, for example) or are consortium papers with 100 or more authors, which the sector indices leave out; all of them count fully in the overall index.

Who it works with

Company partners, 2021 to 2025

Cornell University co-authored verified work with 1,448 company groups, consortium papers aside: 573 of them on two or more works, and 178 as sustained partners.

The largest 12 of its 1,448 company groups, by joint works

Company groupBased inCompany's main research fieldJoint worksYears with a joint work
AstraZenecaUnited KingdomMedicine1675 of 5
Bristol-Myers SquibbUnited StatesMedicine1465 of 5
Merck & Co. (MSD)United StatesMedicine1355 of 5
PfizerUnited StatesMedicine1165 of 5
Johnson & JohnsonUnited StatesMedicine108.55 of 5
RocheSwitzerlandMedicine995 of 5
Eli LillyUnited StatesMedicine89.55 of 5
AbbVieUnited StatesMedicine84.55 of 5
BayerGermanyMedicine78.55 of 5
GlaxoSmithKlineUnited KingdomMedicine73.55 of 5
MicrosoftUnited StatesComputer Science695 of 5
RegeneronUnited StatesMedicine695 of 5

A company group brings together a company's subsidiaries and research labs under one name. A work counts half when its only company author also holds a post at this university. Consortium papers with 100 or more authors are left out of this table.

Examples of its work with industry

Most-cited verified joint works

Its most-cited verified works with 30 or fewer authors, leaving out guidelines and consensus statements. Citation counts are those of the open scholarly record at harvest. Each title links to the work.

Over time

Verified industry works by year

8372021
885.52022
8562023
838.52024
884.52025

2025 is not yet complete: papers published late in the year are still being added to the open record, and coverage may not be equally complete for every university, so compare years with care. A work counts half when its only company author also holds a post at the university, so some totals end in .5.

Clinical trials (reported, not scored)

50 industry-partnered clinical trials

Trials starting 2021 to 2025 in ClinicalTrials.gov in which a company and this university are the sponsor and a collaborator. Names are matched exactly, so a trial registered only under an affiliated hospital's own name is not counted here, and the count can be well below the university's real trial activity. Trials do not enter the score.

Examples:

  • NCT07231328 PIONEER Trial (Post-Transplant Application of TruGraf and TRAC Molecular Panel in Renal Transplant Recipients) with Transplant Genomics, Inc., 2025
  • NCT06168058 Trial of Ovarian Vein and Pelvic Vein Embolization in Women With Chronic Pelvic Pain and Pelvic Varices with Penumbra Inc., 2025
  • NCT07052266 Trial of Combined Obstetric Carrier Screening and Hereditary Cancer Screening with Myriad Genetics, Inc., 2025
  • NCT06788691 Luspatercept for Clonal Cytopenias of Uncertain Significance with Bristol-Myers Squibb, 2025
  • NCT06623656 Preoperative Radioimmunotherapy Versus Chemoimmunotherapy in NSCLC with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, 2025
  • NCT06717308 Evaluation of a Switchable Acrylic Adhesive Drape for Safer Removal in Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Applications. with Global Biomedical Technologies, LLC, 2025

Funded partnerships (reported, not scored)

Publicly funded research projects with companies

European Union: 4 Horizon projects with company partners

Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects starting 2021-2025 in which this university and at least one company take part (9 distinct companies). Company partners include: Aedit Srl, Fisc-ireland Limited, Jefferson Science Associates LLC, Miningful Srl Semplificata, Naval Group, Ri Research Instruments GmbH.

  • SEASOUNDS Innovative marine soundscape characterization to effectively mitigate ocean and sea noise pollution 2024, 2 companies
  • ROSETTA RespOnSiblE Time and Tech in an Accelerated Digitised World 2024, 1 company
  • NEUTRAWEED Understanding Neutral Weed Communities - Crops Interactions and Identification of Artificial Intelligence Algorithms for Species-Specific... 2024, 2 companies

Shown for context from the public grant registries; they do not enter the score in Edition 1. Comparable open registries of company partners exist for the European Union and the United Kingdom but not yet for most other research systems, and in some countries national research organisations take part on behalf of university laboratories, so these counts are not comparable between countries.

Evidence checked

6,396 verified company links

Each counted link (one work, this university and one company) was confirmed against the affiliation text its author wrote; 4,747 of 11,143 candidate links were set aside.

Why links were set aside
  • 1,873 company name not written in the author's affiliation
  • 1,030 part of a university or public institute's own unit
  • 779 ordinary-word name without a company suffix
  • 190 a place or common word that failed its stricter rule
  • 184 excluded after hand audit: Matched almost only from the Flatiron Institute, a non-profit research institute
  • 78 part of a street or district address
  • 613 for other reasons: smaller hand-audit findings, and links the current open record no longer supports

If a partner is missing or should not be here, send the evidence; corrections are free and reviewed against the public record.

For your communications

Badges you can use

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GRP Partnership Intelligence Platform

Where Cornell University's collaboration could go next

This profile is free and public, and it stays that way. Beyond it, the GRP Partnership Intelligence Platform, a partner service arranged with each university, sets your record in both GRP indices beside the peers you choose: the universities and companies your peers work with that you do not, live funding calls matched to your strengths, the EU projects your peers have won, and a brief ready for your executive. It opens to partner universities on Monday 19 October 2026: enquire, and the GRP team will confirm availability and pricing for your university.

Request first access →  See what is inside →

The platform cannot move any university's position, band or score.

The other GRP index

Research Collaboration Index

In the Research Collaboration Index 2026, Cornell University ranks #40 of 1,195, with Platinum standing. It measures the whole research network, not only industry.

View the RCI profile →

Something wrong? Every figure comes from the public record and can be checked. If a partner is missing or should not be there, tell us and we will review it with the evidence. The 2027 edition will be calculated with the same published methodology. The window for universities to submit data for it is open now: submit data for the 2027 edition. The index is free, public and independent. No commercial relationship with any university or company changes any position, and no one can pay to be included, excluded or moved.