Inside National University of Defense Technology's largest research partnership: Hunan University

Behind National University of Defense Technology's research output sits a defining relationship: 713 co-authored works with Hunan University (China) in the five years to 2025, the university's single largest collaboration.

It anchors an unusually connected research base: 690 collaborating institutions across 57 countries, producing 30,908 joint works over the window, with international co-authors on 8% of output.

The collaborative work travels: its field-weighted citation impact stands at 2.76, where the world average is 1.0.

The Research Collaboration Index, the first global account of how universities actually collaborate, publishes its first full edition on Tuesday 15 September at 09:00 UK.

Every figure derives from the open global research record and is checkable at source.