Dutch university Wageningen beats MIT to No. 1 in new global Industry Collaboration Index, with Denmark's DTU and Copenhagen in the top ten

Europe outside the UK holds 34 of the top 100 and 100 of the top 300, and wins four Sector Awards, including Paris-Saclay with Merck & Co. (MSD) and Bern with Siemens.

Title card for the Industry Collaboration Index 2026, Europe, by Global Research Partnerships: Wageningen University & Research No. 1 in the world, the Technical University of Denmark No. 6 and the University of Copenhagen No. 7, 34 universities in Europe outside the UK in the global top 100 and four Sector Award wins. Results published 15 October 2026. — Wageningen University & Research is No. 1 in the Industry Collaboration Index 2026, ahead of MIT, with the Technical University of Denmark No. 6 and the University of Copenhagen No. 7; universities in Europe outside the UK hold 34 of the top 100 places. 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)

Wageningen University & Research, the Dutch food and agriculture university, has beaten MIT to No. 1 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). MIT is No. 2 and Japan takes the next three places. The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is No. 6 and the University of Copenhagen No. 7, giving Europe outside the UK three of the top ten, level with the United States and Japan.

Wageningen co-wrote 1,518 verified industry works, 2.24 times what its mix of fields predicts, working with FrieslandCampina and Danone every year, and leads Agriculture and Food Technology (1 of 194). Copenhagen and Novo Nordisk co-wrote 423 works, the region's largest university-company partnership. Université Grenoble Alpes, with STMicroelectronics and Soitec, is 6th of 109 in Semiconductors and Microelectronics, the highest outside Asia.

The region wins four of the 22 Sector Awards, decided by partnership score with no panel, nomination or payment: Université Paris-Saclay with Merck & Co. (MSD) in Pharmaceuticals, the University of Bern with Siemens in Medical Technology, the University of Luxembourg with SES in Space and the University of Galway with ÉireComposites in Advanced Manufacturing. It holds 75 of the 206 finalist places, including Warsaw University of Technology with Orange. European companies Nokia, Ericsson and Bayer win three more with universities elsewhere.

Europe holds 46 of the top 100 places, 34 of them outside the UK, ahead of North America (38) and Asia-Pacific (16). France has eight in the top 100; Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden five each; the Nordic countries eleven. The Technical University of Munich, with BMW Group and Siemens, leads Germany at No. 13; ETH Zurich, Université Paris-Saclay and KU Leuven lead Switzerland, France and Belgium at 23, 24 and 26. Helsinki (No. 59), Lund (No. 62), Semmelweis (No. 99), Bologna (No. 194) and Pompeu Fabra (No. 233) lead Finland, Sweden, Hungary, Italy and Spain.

The ICI reveals industry strength that GRP's Research Collaboration Index (RCI), which measures collaboration between universities, does not. DTU, working every year with Novo Nordisk and Novozymes, is 230th of 1,195 in the RCI; the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway's leader at No. 78, is 696th; and Eindhoven University of Technology, No. 69 with Philips and ASML, is 496th.

Most global rankings rest on reputation surveys, publications and citations, with collaboration at most a minor indicator. GRP's two indices measure it directly, without 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; universities in Europe outside the UK co-wrote more than 130,000 of those works.

GRP checked 2,070,335 candidate university-company links against authors' affiliation text, confirming 1,148,566, 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.

Since the RCI launched on 15 September, Université PSL, the University of Warsaw and Comenius University Bratislava have celebrated their results.

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

Full results: globalresearchpartnerships.com/ici/
Results by region: globalresearchpartnerships.com/ici/regions/#europe
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

Region: this release covers the index's Europe region excluding the United Kingdom, which has its own release: 352 universities analysed in 34 countries and territories, 326 of them ranked (34 Platinum, 66 Gold, 110 Silver). Regional results: globalresearchpartnerships.com/ici/regions/#europe
National leaders, overall position of 1,038: the Netherlands, Wageningen University & Research (No. 1); Denmark, Technical University of Denmark (No. 6); Germany, Technical University of Munich (No. 13); Switzerland, ETH Zurich (No. 23); France, Université Paris-Saclay (No. 24); Belgium, KU Leuven (No. 26); Finland, University of Helsinki (No. 59); Sweden, Lund University (No. 62); Norway, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (No. 78); Hungary, Semmelweis University (No. 99); Austria, Medical University of Vienna (No. 121); Czechia, Charles University (No. 147); Italy, University of Bologna (No. 194); Spain, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (No. 233); Ireland, University College Dublin (No. 260); Greece, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (No. 264); Portugal, University of Lisbon (No. 275); Luxembourg, University of Luxembourg (No. 328); Poland, Jagiellonian University (No. 610).
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%.
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. Full award names: Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics; Medical Technology and Digital Health; Space and Satellite Technology; Advanced Manufacturing and Industry 4.0. The three further wins with companies based in the region: Queen's University Belfast with Nokia (Next-Generation Communications), Concordia University with Ericsson (Cybersecurity and Digital Trust) and Iowa State University with Bayer (Agriculture and Food Technology).
The RCI and the ICI measure different things: the RCI (1,195 universities) measures collaboration between universities, the ICI (1,038 ranked) research co-written with companies. Positions in the two are printed side by side, never combined. The regional total of works co-written with companies is counted from the published link ledger.
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.

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