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Industry Collaboration Index

Industry Collaboration Index 2026 · University profile

Stanford University

United States · North America · Platinum

★ Sector Awards 2026. Winner: the Software, Cloud and Data Award (with Google; Fredrik Kjølstad and Aart J. C. Bik). Finalist: the Global Industry Partnership of the Year (with Google; Ayfer Özgür and Peter Kairouz); the Artificial Intelligence Award (with Nvidia; Marco Pavone and Riccardo Mariani); the Medical Technology and Digital Health Award (with Siemens Healthineers; Kawin Setsompop and Thorsten Feiweier); the Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology Award (with Samsung; Zhenan Bao and Gae Hwang Lee).

#11World rank of 1,038
86.3ICI scoreout of 100
#4National rank, of 203 in United States
#4Regional rank, of 231 in North America
5,816.5Verified industry works, 2021 to 2025
1,843Company groups worked with (750 on two or more works)

Stanford University is ranked #11 of 1,038, with Platinum standing. Its strongest pillar is scale (100): a network of 750 company groups on two or more joint works. It is held back most by breadth (46): partners concentrated in a few research fields.

Research Collaboration Index 2026: #10 of 1,195, Platinum standing · View the RCI profile →

Why this position

Four pillars, as percentiles

Co-creation30% of the score
97

How often it co-authors with companies, compared with what its own mix of research fields would predict; size makes no difference. 5,816.5 verified works against about 3,236 expected for its fields (1.80 times the expected rate).

Durability20% of the score
92

How much of its industry work sits in sustained partnerships with the same company group. 225 sustained partnerships: five or more joint works in three or more of the five years.

Scale30% of the score
100

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. 750 company groups on two or more joint works; 225 sustained partnerships.

Breadth20% of the score
46

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 (86.3) is the weighted average of the four percentiles. Rank 11 of 1,038 overall; 4 of 203 in United States; 4 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

7.2%of its 80,952 research works in 2021 to 2025 were co-authored with a verified company
1.80Industry co-authorship rate: 1.80 times what its mix of research fields would predict (5,816.5 verified works; about 3,236 expected)
225sustained partnerships: the same company group on five or more joint works in three or more of the five years

In United States

4 of 203 ranked universities in United States

  1. #2 California Institute of Technology world #8, score 87.1
  2. #3 Purdue University West Lafayette world #9, score 86.9
  3. #4 Stanford University world #11, score 86.3
  4. #5 University of California, Berkeley world #12, score 86.1
  5. #6 University of Washington world #16, score 85.0

All ranked universities →   North America: 4 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

#2 of 323Medical Technology and Digital Health311 verified works in the sector
#3 of 220Biotechnology and Advanced Therapies238 verified works in the sector
#10 of 638Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics903 verified works in the sector
Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics
903#10 of 638
Medical Technology and Digital Health
311#2 of 323
Biotechnology and Advanced Therapies
238#3 of 220
Artificial Intelligence
201.5#12 of 292
Climate, Environment and Sustainability
104.5#30 of 373
Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
101.5#109 of 481
Software, Cloud and Data
83#10 of 167
Chemicals, Process and Resources
54.5#79 of 237
Semiconductors and Microelectronics
42.5#27 of 109
Clean Energy Transition
38#200 of 295
Batteries and Energy Storage
29#68 of 126
Agriculture and Food Technology
26#171 of 194
Quantum Technologies
23.5#35 of 40 provisional
Built Environment and Infrastructure
22.5#193 of 215
Next-Generation Communications
22#178 of 188
Advanced Manufacturing and Industry 4.0
19under 20 works
Automotive and Mobility
13under 20 works
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
9.5ranking withheld (under 10 eligible)
Cybersecurity and Digital Trust
9under 20 works
Space and Satellite Technology
8under 20 works
Aerospace and Aviation
7under 20 works
Not in any of the 21 sectors
3,544.5counted in the overall index

2,272 of its 5,816.5 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

Stanford University co-authored verified work with 1,843 company groups, consortium papers aside: 750 of them on two or more works, and 225 as sustained partners.

The largest 12 of its 1,843 company groups, by joint works

Company groupBased inCompany's main research fieldJoint worksYears with a joint work
GoogleUnited StatesComputer Science228.55 of 5
AstraZenecaUnited KingdomMedicine174.55 of 5
Johnson & JohnsonUnited StatesMedicine1565 of 5
RocheSwitzerlandMedicine1425 of 5
NovartisSwitzerlandMedicine1315 of 5
MicrosoftUnited StatesComputer Science118.55 of 5
RegeneronUnited StatesMedicine1145 of 5
PfizerUnited StatesMedicine100.55 of 5
Gilead SciencesUnited StatesMedicine93.55 of 5
Bristol-Myers SquibbUnited StatesMedicine88.55 of 5
Merck & Co. (MSD)United StatesMedicine735 of 5
Eli LillyUnited StatesMedicine72.55 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

1,169.52021
1,138.52022
1,1272023
1,159.52024
1,2222025

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)

58 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:

  • NCT06551584 Trial for Patients w/ Advanced Hematologic Malignancies Undergoing Allogeneic HCT with Incyte Corporation, 2025
  • NCT06809803 Extended-release Sodium Oxybate in Children with Avadel, 2025
  • NCT07027345 A Phase II, Placebo Controlled, Clinical Trial of Topical TolaSure Targeting Aggregated Mutant Keratin in Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex with BioMendics, LLC, 2025
  • NCT06502353 Plexaa For Preconditioning: Gender Affirming Mastectomy with Plexaa Ltd, 2025
  • NCT07081217 Radiocaine Safety Study with Lutroo Imaging LLC, 2025
  • NCT07060547 Investigating HepQuant DuO Test as a Biomarker in Alcohol-related Liver Disease with HepQuant, LLC, 2025

Funded partnerships (reported, not scored)

Publicly funded research projects with companies

European Union: 5 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 (22 distinct companies). Company partners include: Arkema France SA, Astrazeneca Uk Limited, Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH, Catalink Limited, Costruzioni Apparecchiature Elettroniche Nucleari Caen SpA, Deltamem AG.

  • AMBER Advanced Multiscale Biological Imaging using European Infrastructures 2024, 8 companies
  • PhotoBrane Photo-switchable ultra-thin membranes for molecular separation 2025, 5 companies
  • MuseIT Multi-sensory, User-centred, Shared cultural Experiences through Interactive Technologies 2022, 4 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.

Funded and co-publishing. Of the funded company partners that match an ICI company group, 5 also appear in this university's verified co-authorship record (AstraZeneca, UCB Pharma, Carl Zeiss, Arkema, Smart Data Analysis and Statistics) and 5 are funded partners not yet visible in it. About 46% of funded company names could be matched to a company group; the rest are counted, not guessed. 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.

Evidence checked

8,433 verified company links

Each counted link (one work, this university and one company) was confirmed against the affiliation text its author wrote; 6,277 of 14,710 candidate links were set aside.

Why links were set aside
  • 2,460 company name not written in the author's affiliation
  • 894 ordinary-word name without a company suffix
  • 866 excluded after hand audit: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Biohub are philanthropic and non-profit research organisations
  • 701 part of a university or public institute's own unit
  • 300 a place or common word that failed its stricter rule
  • 213 excluded after hand audit: Matched from university research centre names
  • 843 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

Platinum standing badgeSector Awards finalist badgeSector Awards winner badge (Software, Cloud and Data)

Use the badge with a link to this page.

GRP Partnership Intelligence Platform

Where Stanford 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, Stanford University ranks #10 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.