Concordia University and Ericsson win global cybersecurity award as Canadian universities make nine of 22 shortlists in new Industry Collaboration Index

The University of Toronto leads Canada at No. 85, in the world's top 100, and ten Canadian universities make the top 300, as Wageningen beats MIT to No. 1 worldwide.

Title card for the Industry Collaboration Index 2026, Canada regional results, by Global Research Partnerships: the University of Toronto in the world top 100 at No. 85, with Platinum standing; all 28 Canadian universities analysed are ranked, 10 of them in the world top 300; one Sector Award win, Concordia University with Ericsson in Cybersecurity and Digital Trust; 10 Sector Award finalist places. 1,038 universities ranked worldwide, of 1,192 analysed. Results published 15 October 2026, 09:00 BST. — Concordia University and Ericsson win the Cybersecurity and Digital Trust Award, and the University of Toronto leads Canada at No. 85, in the Industry Collaboration Index 2026. Results and Sector Award winners published by Global Research Partnerships on 15 October 2026. Image: Global Research Partnerships. Download the high-resolution image (2400 x 1350, JPEG)

Concordia University in Montreal and Ericsson have won the Cybersecurity and Digital Trust Award, one of 22 Sector Awards in the Industry Collaboration Index (ICI), a new global ranking of 1,038 universities on research co-written with companies, published today by Global Research Partnerships (GRP). Canadian universities are finalists in nine of the 22 categories, a spread bettered only by the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.

Concordia and Ericsson co-wrote 15 verified works in the sector, in every year from 2021 to 2025, earning the category's highest partnership score. Ericsson is the largest verified company partner of three Canadian universities: Concordia, Carleton University and the Université du Québec à Montréal.

The University of Waterloo holds two finalist places, in Quantum Technologies with IBM and in Cybersecurity and Digital Trust with Orange. The University of Toronto and Novo Nordisk are one of ten finalists, from 11,630 eligible partnerships, for Global Industry Partnership of the Year. The University of British Columbia (with HeartFlow), Université Laval (Edwards Lifesciences), Simon Fraser University (Ballard Power Systems), the University of Saskatchewan (Cisco Systems), Polytechnique Montréal (Safran) and McGill University (Siemens) complete Canada's ten finalist places, four in Quebec.

Canadian companies shine too: besides Ballard, Acuitas Therapeutics wins Biotechnology and Advanced Therapies with the University of Pennsylvania, and GHGSat is a finalist with Harvard.

Toronto, at No. 85, co-wrote 4,544 verified works with companies, the most in Canada, and is No. 9 of 638 in Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics. Nine more Canadian universities reach the top 300, with Gold standing: Alberta (No. 127), McGill (149), Calgary (155), British Columbia (156), Waterloo (243), McMaster (249), Western (282), Laval (286) and Guelph (300). Canada's ten top-300 places are the eighth most of any country, and all 28 Canadian universities analysed are ranked.

Guelph is also No. 9 of 194 in Agriculture and Food Technology, the sector Wageningen leads. Industry lifts it above its place in GRP's Research Collaboration Index (RCI), which measures collaboration between universities: No. 300 in the ICI against 394 of 1,195 in the RCI. Polytechnique Montréal is lifted furthest in Canada, No. 555 against 820, while Toronto (No. 15) and British Columbia (No. 20) lead the country in the RCI: the two indices reveal different strengths.

Worldwide, Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands is No. 1, ahead of MIT, and Japan takes the next three places; North America holds 38 of the top 100. Most global rankings rest on reputation surveys, publications and citations, with collaboration at most a minor indicator. The ICI measures it directly through co-authored research, with no surveys or self-reported figures: from 2021 to 2025, the 1,192 universities analysed co-wrote 429,958 verified works with 40,786 company groups, more than 20,000 of those works with a Canadian university.

GRP checked 2,070,335 candidate university-company links against authors' affiliation text, confirming 1,148,566, scored universities on co-creation, durability, scale and breadth, and tested every overall position across 200 re-runs with the evidence resampled and the weights varied.

“Co-authored research is one visible, checkable trace of how universities and companies work together, and it deserves evidence as careful as any citation count. Every link in this index can be traced to what a researcher wrote about where they work,” said Daniel Llewellin of Global Research Partnerships.

The GRP Partnership Intelligence Platform, opening to partner universities on Monday 19 October, turns both indices and published funder records into next steps, from confirming peers and finding partners to matching live funding calls. It cannot change any position. GRP confirms availability and pricing with each university; onboarding takes three days. Early access: globalresearchpartnerships.com/platform/#first-access

Canada's results: globalresearchpartnerships.com/ici/rankings/#country=CA
Full results: globalresearchpartnerships.com/ici/
Media enquiries: globalresearchpartnerships.com/ici/press/

ENDS

About Global Research Partnerships

Global Research Partnerships (GRP) publishes the Research Collaboration Index and the Industry Collaboration Index, two indices of equal standing built from the open scholarly record. The index is free, public and independent; no commercial relationship changes any position. globalresearchpartnerships.com

Media enquiries

Interviews, data and image requests: use the Industry Collaboration Index press and media page. Corrections and other requests about the index: the requests page.

Notes to editors

Canada in the ICI: 28 universities analysed, all 28 ranked: 1 Platinum (top 100), 9 Gold (101 to 300), 11 Silver (301 to 600) and 7 ranked beyond 600. Every Canadian position: globalresearchpartnerships.com/ici/rankings/#country=CA
Canadian Sector Award places (10, in 9 of the 22 categories): Cybersecurity and Digital Trust: Concordia University with Ericsson (winner); Advanced Manufacturing and Industry 4.0: Polytechnique Montréal with Safran; Automotive and Mobility: McGill University with Siemens; Clean Energy Transition: Simon Fraser University with Ballard Power Systems; Cybersecurity and Digital Trust: University of Waterloo with Orange; Global Industry Partnership of the Year: University of Toronto with Novo Nordisk; Medical Technology and Digital Health: University of British Columbia with HeartFlow; Next-Generation Communications: University of Saskatchewan with Cisco Systems; Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics: Université Laval with Edwards Lifesciences; Quantum Technologies: University of Waterloo with IBM. The Cybersecurity and Digital Trust category had 7 finalists from 9 eligible partnerships after the award screen.
Canadian companies in other Sector Award partnerships: Acuitas Therapeutics (winner, Biotechnology and Advanced Therapies, with the University of Pennsylvania) and GHGSat (finalist, Climate, Environment and Sustainability, with Harvard University).
Provincial leaders (world position of 1,038): Ontario: University of Toronto (No. 85); Alberta: University of Alberta (No. 127); Quebec: McGill University (No. 149); British Columbia: University of British Columbia (No. 156); Manitoba: University of Manitoba (No. 362); Saskatchewan: University of Saskatchewan (No. 434); Nova Scotia: Dalhousie University (No. 462); Newfoundland and Labrador: Memorial University of Newfoundland (No. 482); New Brunswick: University of New Brunswick (No. 895).
Coverage: 1,192 universities in 81 countries and territories; research co-authored with companies in the open scholarly record, 2021 to 2025. The 1,038 with at least 100 verified industry works are ranked. Bands: Platinum 1 to 100, Gold 101 to 300, Silver 301 to 600, none beyond.
Sectors: a university is ranked in a sector with at least 20 verified industry works in it; the sector score weights volume 30%, reach 25%, repeat partnerships (three or more works over two or more years) 25% and network influence within the sector 20%. Each sector position uses that sector's own pool, and sectors with fewer than 50 eligible universities are provisional. The Robotics and Autonomous Systems ranking is withheld (9 eligible, below the minimum of 10); its Sector Award is still made.
Pillars, each a percentile among ranked universities: co-creation 30% (the share of a university's research co-written with a verified company, against what its mix of fields predicts), durability 20% (the share of that work in sustained partnerships), scale 30% (the size of its industry network) and breadth 20% (how varied its company partners' main research fields are).
Robustness: every published overall position is tested across 200 re-runs in which the works are resampled and each pillar weight varies by up to 25%.
Validation: as a check, not proof, rank agreement with an independent open measure of university and industry co-publication is 0.80 across 1,147 universities.
The winner in each category is the finalist with the highest partnership score (volume of joint work 40%, years active 30%, field-weighted citation impact 30%) in the frozen Edition 1 record. No panel, nomination or payment plays any part.
Every 2026 winner co-published in all five years. Global Industry Partnership of the Year drew 11,630 eligible partnerships after the award screen, from which ten finalists were chosen.
The ICI and RCI positions compared in the release are each university's own published positions: of 1,038 ranked universities in the ICI and of 1,195 in the RCI.
Canada's regional total (more than 20,000 verified works with a Canadian university) is counted from the published link ledger, released under CC BY 4.0.
What the index does not measure: it shows co-authored research between universities and companies, not confidential projects, consultancy or licensing, and it does not show that jobs, products, therapies or economic outcomes resulted from any partnership. Clinical trials and funded partnerships are reported on university profiles, not scored.
Industry and awards: market-producing state-owned enterprises count as industry, following the OECD Frascati Manual, and are marked throughout. Award eligibility is screened: partnerships with state-owned or state-controlled companies, with companies or universities on UK, EU, UN or US sanctions or restricted-party lists, or with companies that are primarily defence producers cannot win an award. The index itself counts every verified partnership.
Reuse: the rankings, sector indices, award finalists, company verification table, topic-to-sector map and full link ledger are released under CC BY 4.0; attribute as “Industry Collaboration Index, Global Research Partnerships”. The RCI and the ICI have equal standing, and every university profile links to both.

Explore the results

Every edition of this release

Global releaseGlobal Regional editionUnited Kingdom Regional editionEurope Regional editionUnited States Regional editionCanada Regional editionAustralia and New Zealand Regional editionAsia Regional editionMiddle East Regional editionLatin America

For universities

The GRP Partnership Intelligence Platform

Your university beside the peers you choose, across both GRP indices: 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 and cannot change any position. GRP confirms availability and pricing with each university; onboarding takes three days.

Request early access →See what is inside →