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Industry Collaboration Index

Industry Collaboration Index 2026 · University profile

University of Oxford

United Kingdom · Europe · Platinum

★ Sector Awards 2026. Winner: the Artificial Intelligence Award (with Google; Francis McKay and Alan Karthikesalingam); the Aerospace and Aviation Award (with Rolls-Royce; Peter Thomas Ireland and Dougal Jackson).

#29World rank of 1,038
82.0ICI scoreout of 100
#5National rank, of 62 in United Kingdom
#12Regional rank, of 388 in Europe
4,468Verified industry works, 2021 to 2025
1,499Company groups worked with (558 on two or more works)

University of Oxford is ranked #29 of 1,038, with Platinum standing. Its strongest pillar is scale (98): a network of 558 company groups on two or more joint works. It is held back most by breadth (41): partners concentrated in a few research fields.

Research Collaboration Index 2026: #3 of 1,195, Platinum standing · View the RCI profile →

Why this position

Four pillars, as percentiles

Co-creation30% of the score
88

How often it co-authors with companies, compared with what its own mix of research fields would predict; size makes no difference. 4,468 verified works against about 2,924 expected for its fields (1.53 times the expected rate).

Durability20% of the score
91

How much of its industry work sits in sustained partnerships with the same company group. 152 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. 558 company groups on two or more joint works; 152 sustained partnerships.

Breadth20% of the score
41

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 (82.0) is the weighted average of the four percentiles. Rank 29 of 1,038 overall; 5 of 62 in United Kingdom; 12 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

5.2%of its 86,352 research works in 2021 to 2025 were co-authored with a verified company
1.53Industry co-authorship rate: 1.53 times what its mix of research fields would predict (4,468 verified works; about 2,924 expected)
152sustained partnerships: the same company group on five or more joint works in three or more of the five years

In United Kingdom

5 of 62 ranked universities in United Kingdom

  1. #3 University of Sheffield world #17, score 84.8
  2. #4 University College London world #25, score 83.4
  3. #5 University of Oxford world #29, score 82.0
  4. #6 University of Manchester world #34, score 81.3
  5. #7 University of Edinburgh world #48, score 79.5

All ranked universities →   Europe: 12 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

#7 of 220Biotechnology and Advanced Therapies126 verified works in the sector
#26 of 638Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics638 verified works in the sector
#25 of 323Medical Technology and Digital Health137 verified works in the sector
Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics
638#26 of 638
Artificial Intelligence
142#33 of 292
Medical Technology and Digital Health
137#25 of 323
Biotechnology and Advanced Therapies
126#7 of 220
Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
105#77 of 481
Climate, Environment and Sustainability
76.5#79 of 373
Quantum Technologies
56#6 of 40 provisional
Software, Cloud and Data
51.5#54 of 167
Clean Energy Transition
51#112 of 295
Chemicals, Process and Resources
40#87 of 237
Aerospace and Aviation
28#12 of 17 provisional
Advanced Manufacturing and Industry 4.0
23.5#183 of 201
Agriculture and Food Technology
21#193 of 194
Batteries and Energy Storage
20#124 of 126
Next-Generation Communications
19.5under 20 works
Semiconductors and Microelectronics
14.5under 20 works
Built Environment and Infrastructure
9under 20 works
Cybersecurity and Digital Trust
7under 20 works
Automotive and Mobility
7under 20 works
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
4ranking withheld (under 10 eligible)
Not in any of the 21 sectors
2,882.5counted in the overall index

1,585.5 of its 4,468 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

University of Oxford co-authored verified work with 1,499 company groups, consortium papers aside: 558 of them on two or more works, and 152 as sustained partners.

The largest 12 of its 1,499 company groups, by joint works

Company groupBased inCompany's main research fieldJoint worksYears with a joint work
AstraZenecaUnited KingdomMedicine205.55 of 5
Johnson & JohnsonUnited StatesMedicine1955 of 5
RocheSwitzerlandMedicine188.55 of 5
GlaxoSmithKlineUnited KingdomMedicine135.55 of 5
NovartisSwitzerlandMedicine1265 of 5
PfizerUnited StatesMedicine1175 of 5
GoogleUnited StatesComputer Science1015 of 5
Eli LillyUnited StatesMedicine995 of 5
SanofiFranceMedicine965 of 5
UCB PharmaBelgiumMedicine95.55 of 5
Novo NordiskDenmarkBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology80.55 of 5
Boehringer IngelheimGermanyMedicine775 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

952.52021
9032022
8962023
8682024
848.52025

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)

43 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:

  • NCT07590999 Probiotic Intake and Perimenopausal Psychological Assessments with ADM Protexin, 2025
  • NCT06922695 Responding to AF: Pill-in-Pocket Anticoagulation Guided by Automated Monitoring and Alerts with Medtronic, 2025
  • NCT05058690 Artificial Intelligence to Improve Cardiometabolic Risk Evaluation Using CT Scans with Caristo Diagnostics Limited, 2025
  • NCT06585267 Development of a New Patient Reported Outcome Measure (PROM) to Assess Patient's Emotional Wellbeing, and Perceptions of Total Knee Replacement Surgery for the Treatment of Knee Arthritis with Invibio Ltd, 2024
  • NCT06387914 Efficacy of Pain Intervention With Deep Brain Stimulation Neuromodulation with Bioinduction, 2024
  • NCT06419322 Acceptability, Feasibility, Safety and Efficacy of a Optimized Rehabilitation Program for Treated Patients With Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). with Scholar Rock, Inc., 2024

Funded partnerships (reported, not scored)

Publicly funded research projects with companies

European Union: 144 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 (561 distinct companies). Most frequent: IBM Research GmbH, Pfizer Limited, Novo Nordisk A/s, Sanofi-aventis Recherche & Developpement, Medtronic Bakken Research Center B.v., Thales Las France SAS.

  • UNITE4TB ACADEMIA AND INDUSTRY UNITED INNOVATION AND TREATMENT FOR TUBERCULOSIS 2021, 4 companies
  • HEAVEN Hydrogen Engine Architecture Virtually Engineered Novelly 2023, 8 companies
  • DVPS Diversibus Viis Plurima Solvo 2025, 6 companies

United Kingdom: 473 UKRI projects with named company partners

Projects funded through UK Research and Innovation (research councils and Innovate UK, including Knowledge Transfer Partnerships) starting 2021-2025 in which this university takes part and at least one company is a named partner (768 distinct companies, including collaborations reported after the award). Most frequent: AstraZeneca, Rolls Royce, IBM (United Kingdom), Johnson Matthey (United Kingdom), Siemens plc (UK), GSK.

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, 191 also appear in this university's verified co-authorship record (AstraZeneca, Rolls-Royce, IBM, Johnson Matthey, GlaxoSmithKline, Microsoft) and 273 are funded partners not yet visible in it. About 43% 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

6,903 verified company links

Each counted link (one work, this university and one company) was confirmed against the affiliation text its author wrote; 7,662 of 14,565 candidate links were set aside.

Why links were set aside
  • 4,618 company name not written in the author's affiliation
  • 836 ordinary-word name without a company suffix
  • 816 not an industry organisation
  • 428 part of a university or public institute's own unit
  • 254 a place or common word that failed its stricter rule
  • 109 excluded after hand audit: Matched almost only from the Flatiron Institute, a non-profit research institute
  • 601 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 winner badge (Artificial Intelligence, Aerospace and Aviation)

Use the badge with a link to this page.

GRP Partnership Intelligence Platform

Where University of Oxford'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, University of Oxford ranks #3 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.