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Industry Collaboration Index

Industry Collaboration Index 2026 · University profile

Wageningen University & Research

Netherlands · Europe · Platinum

★ Sector Awards 2026. Finalist: the Agriculture and Food Technology Award (with Danone; Penghui Shen and Jinfeng Peng).

#1World rank of 1,038
90.9ICI scoreout of 100
#1National rank, of 13 in Netherlands
#1Regional rank, of 388 in Europe
1,518Verified industry works, 2021 to 2025
564Company groups worked with (212 on two or more works)

Wageningen University & Research is ranked #1 of 1,038, with Platinum standing. Its strongest pillar is co-creation (99): 1,518 verified industry works against about 677 expected for its mix of fields. All four pillars are above the middle of the ranked universities; the lowest is durability (84).

Research Collaboration Index 2026: #115 of 1,195, Gold standing · View the RCI profile →

Why this position

Four pillars, as percentiles

Co-creation30% of the score
99

How often it co-authors with companies, compared with what its own mix of research fields would predict; size makes no difference. 1,518 verified works against about 677 expected for its fields (2.24 times the expected rate).

Durability20% of the score
84

How much of its industry work sits in sustained partnerships with the same company group. 64 sustained partnerships: five or more joint works in three or more of the five years.

Scale30% of the score
87

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. 212 company groups on two or more joint works; 64 sustained partnerships.

Breadth20% of the score
92

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 (90.9) is the weighted average of the four percentiles. Rank 1 of 1,038 overall; 1 of 13 in Netherlands; 1 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

7.0%of its 21,788 research works in 2021 to 2025 were co-authored with a verified company
2.24Industry co-authorship rate: 2.24 times what its mix of research fields would predict (1,518 verified works; about 677 expected)
64sustained partnerships: the same company group on five or more joint works in three or more of the five years

In Netherlands

1 of 13 ranked universities in Netherlands

  1. #1 Wageningen University & Research world #1, score 90.9
  2. #2 Utrecht University world #36, score 80.8
  3. #3 Eindhoven University of Technology world #69, score 77.7
  4. #4 Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam world #89, score 75.9
  5. #5 University of Groningen world #97, score 75.2

All ranked universities →   Europe: 1 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

#1 of 194Agriculture and Food Technology326 verified works in the sector
#10 of 373Climate, Environment and Sustainability131.5 verified works in the sector
Agriculture and Food Technology
326#1 of 194
Climate, Environment and Sustainability
131.5#10 of 373
Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics
67#346 of 638
Biotechnology and Advanced Therapies
28.5#163 of 220
Clean Energy Transition
18.5under 20 works
Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
15under 20 works
Software, Cloud and Data
13under 20 works
Medical Technology and Digital Health
10under 20 works
Chemicals, Process and Resources
6under 20 works
Next-Generation Communications
6under 20 works
Advanced Manufacturing and Industry 4.0
2under 20 works
Artificial Intelligence
2under 20 works
Automotive and Mobility
2under 20 works
Aerospace and Aviation
1under 20 works
Built Environment and Infrastructure
1under 20 works
Space and Satellite Technology
1under 20 works
Not in any of the 21 sectors
886.5counted in the overall index

631.5 of its 1,518 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

Wageningen University & Research co-authored verified work with 564 company groups, consortium papers aside: 212 of them on two or more works, and 64 as sustained partners.

The largest 12 of its 564 company groups, by joint works

Company groupBased inCompany's main research fieldJoint worksYears with a joint work
FrieslandCampinaNetherlandsAgricultural and Biological Sciences1275 of 5
DanoneFranceMedicine1085 of 5
Topigs NorsvinNetherlandsBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology425 of 5
NestléSwitzerlandMedicine34.55 of 5
BayerGermanyMedicine305 of 5
LifeGlimmerGermanyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology285 of 5
Royal GDNetherlandsAgricultural and Biological Sciences27.55 of 5
Hendrix GeneticsNetherlandsBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology265 of 5
SyngentaSTATE-OWNEDSwitzerlandMedicine24.55 of 5
CargillUnited StatesAgricultural and Biological Sciences23.55 of 5
ShellUnited KingdomEngineering225 of 5
UnileverUnited KingdomMedicine20.55 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

349.52021
3192022
286.52023
2842024
2792025

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)

5 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:

  • NCT05762965 Effect of Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) on Faecal Gut Microbiota in Adult Women with FrieslandCampina, 2023
  • NCT05813769 Dairy and Plant Amino Acid Uptake. An Explorative Study with FrieslandCampina, 2023
  • NCT05016596 Postprandial Lipids in IBS and Nutritional Treatment with Givaudan France Naturals, 2021
  • NCT04790422 Nutrition to Relieve IBS Symptoms by Targeting the Microbiota with Nexira, 2021
  • NCT04798417 Nutrition to Relieve IBS Constipation with Nexira, 2021

Funded partnerships (reported, not scored)

Publicly funded research projects with companies

European Union: 201 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 (719 distinct companies). Most frequent: Inrae Transfert SAS, Euroquality SAS, Iris Technology Solutions, Sociedad Limitada, Uab Beta Via, Novamont SpA, Unilever Innovation Centre Wageningen BV.

  • PARC Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals 2022, 1 company
  • WaterLANDS Water-based solutions for carbon storage, people and wilderness 2021, 2 companies
  • Climate Farm Demo A EUROPEAN-WIDE NETWORK OF PILOT FARMERS IMPLEMENTING AND DEMONSTRATING CLIMATE SMART SOLUTIONS FOR A CARBON NEUTRAL EUROPE 2022, 17 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, 31 also appear in this university's verified co-authorship record (Danone, LifeGlimmer, Corteva, Sparos, Noldus Information Technology, Biomin) and 98 are funded partners not yet visible in it. About 18% 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

2,191 verified company links

Each counted link (one work, this university and one company) was confirmed against the affiliation text its author wrote; 1,116 of 3,307 candidate links were set aside.

Why links were set aside
  • 649 company name not written in the author's affiliation
  • 191 ordinary-word name without a company suffix
  • 68 part of a university or public institute's own unit
  • 29 excluded after hand audit: Sciensano is the Belgian federal public health institute (government)
  • 27 only inside the university's own affiliation text
  • 20 a place or common word that failed its stricter rule
  • 132 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

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GRP Partnership Intelligence Platform

Where Wageningen University & Research'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, Wageningen University & Research ranks #115 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.