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Industry Collaboration Index

Industry Collaboration Index 2026 · University profile

UCLouvain

Belgium · Europe · Silver

#418World rank of 1,038
56.1ICI scoreout of 100
#5National rank, of 7 in Belgium
#179Regional rank, of 388 in Europe
589Verified industry works, 2021 to 2025
312Company groups worked with (119 on two or more works)

UCLouvain is ranked #418 of 1,038, with Silver standing. Its strongest pillar is co-creation (63): 589 verified industry works against about 518 expected for its mix of fields. It is held back most by durability (47): 31 of its company groups are sustained partners (five or more joint works in three or more of the five years); and by breadth (49): partners concentrated in a few research fields.

Research Collaboration Index 2026: #179 of 1,195, Gold standing · View the RCI profile →

Why this position

Four pillars, as percentiles

Co-creation30% of the score
63

How often it co-authors with companies, compared with what its own mix of research fields would predict; size makes no difference. 589 verified works against about 518 expected for its fields (1.14 times the expected rate).

Durability20% of the score
47

How much of its industry work sits in sustained partnerships with the same company group. 31 sustained partnerships: five or more joint works in three or more of the five years.

Scale30% of the score
60

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. 119 company groups on two or more joint works; 31 sustained partnerships.

Breadth20% of the score
49

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 (56.1) is the weighted average of the four percentiles. Rank 418 of 1,038 overall; 5 of 7 in Belgium; 179 of 388 in Europe. 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

3.6%of its 16,220 research works in 2021 to 2025 were co-authored with a verified company
1.14Industry co-authorship rate: 1.14 times what its mix of research fields would predict (589 verified works; about 518 expected)
31sustained partnerships: the same company group on five or more joint works in three or more of the five years

In Belgium

5 of 7 ranked universities in Belgium

  1. #1 KU Leuven world #26, score 82.4
  2. #2 Ghent University world #54, score 79.0
  3. #3 University of Liège world #237, score 66.6
  4. #4 University of Antwerp world #256, score 65.1
  5. #5 UCLouvain world #418, score 56.1
  6. #6 Vrije Universiteit Brussel world #498, score 51.0
  7. #7 Université Libre de Bruxelles world #553, score 47.8

All ranked universities →   Europe: 179 of 388 →

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

#199 of 638Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics145.5 verified works in the sector
Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics
145.5#199 of 638
Medical Technology and Digital Health
37#201 of 323
Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
24.5#391 of 481
Semiconductors and Microelectronics
22#92 of 109
Agriculture and Food Technology
22#172 of 194
Biotechnology and Advanced Therapies
12.5under 20 works
Artificial Intelligence
11under 20 works
Climate, Environment and Sustainability
9under 20 works
Next-Generation Communications
9under 20 works
Advanced Manufacturing and Industry 4.0
6.5under 20 works
Clean Energy Transition
6.5under 20 works
Batteries and Energy Storage
6under 20 works
Software, Cloud and Data
4under 20 works
Cybersecurity and Digital Trust
3.5under 20 works
Built Environment and Infrastructure
3under 20 works
Chemicals, Process and Resources
3under 20 works
Aerospace and Aviation
1under 20 works
Space and Satellite Technology
1under 20 works
Automotive and Mobility
0.5under 20 works
Not in any of the 21 sectors
261counted in the overall index

328 of its 589 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

UCLouvain co-authored verified work with 312 company groups, consortium papers aside: 119 of them on two or more works, and 31 as sustained partners.

The largest 12 of its 312 company groups, by joint works

Company groupBased inCompany's main research fieldJoint worksYears with a joint work
Johnson & JohnsonUnited StatesMedicine23.55 of 5
RocheSwitzerlandMedicine205 of 5
Ion Beam ApplicationsBelgiumPhysics and Astronomy17.55 of 5
Adc TherapeuticsSwitzerlandMedicine134 of 5
SanofiFranceMedicine124 of 5
ThalesFranceEngineering125 of 5
SoitecFranceEngineering105 of 5
PfizerUnited StatesMedicine104 of 5
International Drug Development InstituteBelgiumMedicine9.55 of 5
AstraZenecaUnited KingdomMedicine94 of 5
RaySearch LaboratoriesSwedenMedicine8.53 of 5
CenaeroBelgiumEngineering85 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

Over time

Verified industry works by year

141.52021
120.52022
106.52023
1002024
120.52025

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)

7 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:

  • NCT06988020 "Pseudo-scanner" MRI Sequences for the Detection of Bone Lesions in Multiple Myeloma with General Electric, 2025
  • NCT06414486 Effects of Ginseng on Stress, Emotional and Cognitive Processing with Botalys, 2023
  • NCT06138470 Evaluation of the Effect of a Combination of Plants to Regulate Mood with Comercial Quimica Masso, S.A, 2022
  • NCT05487365 Implementation and Cost-evaluation of a Smartphone-based Telemonitoring and Digital Support in Patients With HF with Comunicare Solutions SA, 2022
  • NCT05199545 Efficacy Study in Phytotherapy of an Association of Plants in the Improvement of Psychological Well-being with Larena SAS, 2022
  • NCT04812418 Evaluation of a Combination of Plants in Anxiety-related Sleep Disorders: Randomized Trial Versus Placebo with PiLeJe, 2021

Funded partnerships (reported, not scored)

Publicly funded research projects with companies

European Union: 59 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 (389 distinct companies). Most frequent: Soitec SA, STMicroelectronics Crolles 2 SAS, Infineon Technologies AG, Leonardo - Societa per Azioni, Soil Capital Belgium, Aixtron SE.

  • EUROfusion Implementation of activities described in the Roadmap to Fusion during Horizon Europe through a joint programme of the members of the... 2021, 12 companies
  • HE-ART Hybrid Electric propulsion system for regional AiRcrafT 2023, 25 companies
  • SOIL Solidify the European FDSOI Ecosystem Accelerating its Industrial Deployment 2024, 22 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, 24 also appear in this university's verified co-authorship record (Soitec, STMicroelectronics, Robert Bosch, Thales, Matgenix, Safran) and 82 are funded partners not yet visible in it. About 31% 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

876 verified company links

Each counted link (one work, this university and one company) was confirmed against the affiliation text its author wrote; 794 of 1,670 candidate links were set aside.

Why links were set aside
  • 376 company name not written in the author's affiliation
  • 153 excluded after hand audit: Sciensano is the Belgian federal public health institute (government)
  • 71 ordinary-word name without a company suffix
  • 58 refresh_university_not_on_work
  • 44 part of a university or public institute's own unit
  • 19 a place or common word that failed its stricter rule
  • 73 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.

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GRP Partnership Intelligence Platform

Where UCLouvain'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, UCLouvain ranks #179 of 1,195, with Gold 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.