Research Collaboration Index
A worked example using real, public data for the University of Oxford, a world-leading institution.  See a non-elite example (Maastricht) →

The enhanced fact file

Your entire collaboration network, read like a strategist would.

Not a scorecard. A dossier that tells a university leader exactly where the strengths, the risks and the fundable opportunities are, every figure sourced from the open research record.

β—† Platinum standing · top 1% worldwide
🌍 Europe: top 1% of 417 universities
236,983
co-authored works, 5 years
1,185
partner universities
80
partner countries
1,141
sustained deep ties
3.99 FWCI
collaboration impact
97%
of partners non-redundant

The one-screen strategic read

Where you stand, at a glance.

The first thing a leader needs is not more data, it is a verdict. Three strengths to lead with, three challenges to manage, three opportunities to act on, each drawn straight from the network below.

Strengths
  • World-leading on every pillar. Top 1% globally across all seven collaboration pillars: network influence (99th percentile), reach (100th) and sustained partnership (100th).
  • A genuine bridge, not just a hub. 780 of 807 partners (97%) are non-redundant, so it connects research communities that would not otherwise meet.
  • Five subjects ranked #1 in the world. Medicine, Environmental Science, Psychology, Neuroscience and Mathematics all rank first globally for connected research: five natural anchors for new consortia.
Challenges
  • Network concentration. The top two partner countries account for about 63% of collaboration volume. Depth in the US and UK is a strength; the thin long tail is a resilience risk.
  • A high-volume, low-impact anchor. Mahidol University is a top-3 partner by output (5,549 joint works) yet returns the lowest impact of the anchor set (FWCI 1.9). Volume is not converting to citation impact.
  • Diversity is the softest pillar. Diversity sits at the 90th percentile, below the other six, and the network reaches 0 of the 2 leading collaborators in the Middle East: a clear white-space.
Opportunities
  • Win Nanyang Technological University. World top-15 for connected research and a natural, fundable bridge in Environmental Science with no joint output yet. Route: an NSFC / JSPS / A*STAR bilateral or the Human Frontier Science Program.
  • Convert the highest-yield tie. Harvard is a smaller anchor by volume but the highest-impact (FWCI 10.5). Formalising it into a funded consortium compounds impact rather than volume.
  • Diversify into the Middle East. Two of the world's leading collaborators sit in a region the network barely reaches. A cross-region Belmont Forum or HFSP action opens it.

Scholarly weight

The impact behind the network

Collaboration only counts if the work lands. This is the citation weight of everything produced with partners, the substance under the network.

2,063
h-index of the joint research base
62.9M
citations to co-authored work
3.99
field-weighted citation impact (FWCI)
236,983
co-authored works, 2021-2025
96
collaboration efficiency, impact per tie

Visualisation 1

Your collaboration profile

Seven pillars, each shown as a global percentile. The dashed ring marks the top-decile benchmark; anything inside it is a genuine, defensible strength.

Influence99th pctReach100th pctDiversity90th pctSustained100th pctImpact97th pctInternational97th pctBrokerage100th pct

Oxford is at or near the ceiling on network influence, reach and sustained partnership, with world-leading collaboration impact. Its brokerage is the standout: 780 of 807 partners (97%) are non-redundant, meaning it bridges communities that would otherwise stay disconnected, rather than simply publishing widely.

The one pillar off the ceiling is Diversity (90th percentile): the single most useful line on the chart, because it points straight at the opportunity below.

Source: the open global research record, co-authored works 2021–2025, fractional counting

The anatomy of your standing

Exactly what your position is built from

Six pillars, each weighted, combine into one standing index. Nothing is hidden: this is the entire calculation, in a single bar.

InflImpaSustReacDiveInteEach block is a pillar’s weighted contribution; together they place the university in the top 1% worldwide.
Influence22% weight99th pct+21.8
Impact18% weight97th pct+17.5
Sustained18% weight100th pct+18.0
Reach16% weight100th pct+16.0
Diversity16% weight90th pct+14.4
International10% weight97th pct+9.7

Brokerage is reported alongside as a diagnostic, not folded into the score, so a university cannot inflate its standing simply by publishing widely. It measures whether you connect communities that would otherwise stay apart.

Visualisation 2

Where you lead the world, by field

Each subject placed on a log scale of world rank (1 to 1,195). The further left, the more globally central. Gold marks a top-3 crown jewel.

#1#10#100#1000Medicine1Environmental Sci.1Psychology1Neuroscience1Mathematics1Social Sciences2Biochem. & Mol. Biology3Computer Sci.3
Crown jewel (#1–3)Top-10 strengthRanked

Five fields rank #1 in the world for connected research: Medicine, Environmental Science, Psychology, Neuroscience and Mathematics. On a normal university this chart spreads across the scale and instantly separates the crown jewels to lead with from the at-risk subjects slipping down it.

Source: subject-level indices, 26 fields, minimum 50-university gate

Discipline deep-dive

How you collaborate, faculty by faculty

The same network split into its four broad domains, each with its world rank for connected research and the five partners it leans on most. This is the view a dean or pro-vice-chancellor acts on.

Health & Medicine
World #29 for connected research
98/100
Top collaboration partners
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ UCL3,770
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Imperial College London2,963
πŸ‡ΉπŸ‡­ Mahidol2,583
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Cambridge2,575
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ King's College London2,109
Life Sciences
World #28 for connected research
98/100
Top collaboration partners
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ UCL1,625
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Cambridge1,503
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Imperial College London1,089
πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ Harvard947
πŸ‡ΉπŸ‡­ Mahidol895
Physical Sciences & Engineering
World #84 for connected research
93/100
Top collaboration partners
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Cambridge3,389
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ UCL2,837
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Imperial College London2,276
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Manchester2,082
πŸ‡«πŸ‡· Sorbonne UniversitΓ©1,886
Social Sciences
World #11 for connected research
99/100
Top collaboration partners
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ UCL1,362
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Cambridge1,034
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ King's College London762
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Imperial College London580
πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ Harvard545
Source: domain-level co-authorship, partner institutions 2021–2025

Visualisation 3

Which partnerships actually pay off

Every anchor partner plotted by collaboration volume against the citation impact of the joint work. The prize quadrant is top-right: high volume and high impact. The bottom-right is the trap: a lot of output, little impact.

Joint works (collaboration volume) →Impact (FWCI) →high yieldUCLCambridgeMahidolHarvard
High yieldStandardLow yield

Harvard is a mid-sized partner by volume but returns an FWCI of 10.5, the highest-impact relationship in the set: a consortium waiting to happen. Mahidol, by contrast, is one of the largest partners by output yet the lowest-yield (FWCI 1.9): worth a hard look at what that volume is buying.

PartnerJoint worksFWCIYield
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ University College London7,477 6.5Standard
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ University of Cambridge5,654 6.4Standard
πŸ‡ΉπŸ‡­ Mahidol University5,549 1.9Low yield
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Imperial College London5,371 5.5Standard
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ King's College London3,547 5.5Standard
πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ Harvard University3,221 10.5High yield
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ University of Edinburgh2,993 7.4Standard
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ University of Bristol2,965 6.0Standard
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine2,833 5.2Standard
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ University of Manchester2,692 5.3Standard
Source: institution-to-institution co-authorship ledger + field-weighted citation impact

Visualisation 4

Your global reach, and where it thins out

Top partner countries

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ United Kingdom 73,308
πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ United States 47,149
πŸ‡¨πŸ‡³ China 15,450
πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ Germany 13,790
πŸ‡«πŸ‡· France 12,305
πŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ί Australia 12,176
πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ Canada 9,149
πŸ‡³πŸ‡± Netherlands 7,571

Anchor partner institutions

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ University College London 7,477
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ University of Cambridge 5,654
πŸ‡ΉπŸ‡­ Mahidol University 5,549
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Imperial College London 5,371
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ King's College London 3,547
πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ Harvard University 3,221
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ University of Edinburgh 2,993
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ University of Bristol 2,965

The network spans 80 countries and 1,185 universities, but the top two countries carry about 63% of the volume. That concentration is where the resilience question lives, and the Middle East white-space (0 of the region's 2 leading collaborators) is the clearest gap to close.

In Environmental Science, the university's single strongest partnership is πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ University of Cambridge, with 323 joint works: the natural anchor for a flagship consortium in the field where it already leads the world.
Source: co-authorship by partner-institution country, 2021–2025

Visualisation 5

The research funding behind the network

€687M1,071 projects
Horizon EuropeHorizon 2020

€687M across 1,071 funded projects from the European Commission alone, split €168M Horizon Europe and €520M Horizon 2020, every project traceable to the funder's own award record (CORDIS). Your fact file adds UKRI, the ERC and the world's major national funders, each named and linked, never a single black-box platform.

Funding is shown next to the network because the two move together: the fundable opportunities below are chosen where a real programme already exists to pay for the bridge.

Source: funders' own award systems + CORDIS, awards active 2021–2025 · verified

Visualisation 6

The partners to win next

Not a generic wish-list. Globally central universities you are not yet deeply partnered with, each with the reason it matters and the specific programme that would fund the collaboration.

πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡¬ Nanyang Technological University Singapore · world top-14

Nanyang Technological University is top-280 globally in Social Sciences. You have no joint publications yet, and it is a natural, fundable bridge in Environmental Science.

Funding route: an NSFC / JSPS / A*STAR bilateral programme, or the Human Frontier Science Program

πŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ί The University of Western Australia Australia · world top-42

The University of Western Australia is top-382 globally in Social Sciences. You have no joint publications yet, and it is a natural, fundable bridge in Environmental Science.

Funding route: the Human Frontier Science Program or a Belmont Forum collaborative-research action

Source: network white-space analysis + funder-programme mapping

The research base

The ecosystem behind the collaboration

A partnership does not plug into a name, it plugs into a base: the affiliated hospitals, presses, institutes and archives, and the research themes where the joint work concentrates.

Centre for Human GeneticsMahosot HospitalChurchill HospitalOxford Health NHS Foundation TrustOxford University Press (United Kingdom)John Radcliffe HospitalWarneford HospitalNIHR Oxford Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Centre
Physics and AstronomyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyMedicineEnvironmental Science

Context

Your competitive set, and your signature research

Benchmarked against

The named peer group your fact file compares you to, pillar by pillar and subject by subject.

πŸ‡­πŸ‡° University of Hong KongHong Kong SAR
πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡¬ National University of SingaporeSingapore
πŸ‡­πŸ‡° Chinese University of Hong KongHong Kong SAR
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ University College LondonUnited Kingdom
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom

Signature joint research

The most-cited work produced with partners, each verifiable.

Particle physics theoretical and experimental studiesGenomics and Phylogenetic StudiesMalaria Research and ControlSpecies Distribution and Climate ChangeGalaxies: Formation, Evolution, PhenomenaQuantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions

From insight to action

A 90-day plan, written from the data.

The dossier ends where a strategy meeting begins: three moves, sequenced, each pointing back to a specific finding above.

0-30 days
Name the target

Adopt Nanyang Technological University and one Middle East hub as formal partnership targets; brief the relevant department heads with the joint white-space evidence.

30-60 days
Open the funding route

Scope the specific bilateral or HFSP / Belmont Forum call for each target, and convert the Harvard tie into a consortium concept in the strongest shared field, Environmental Science.

60-90 days
Interrogate the soft spots

Review the high-volume, low-impact partnerships for quality; set a diversification target for the long tail; and secure an editorial feature in the reputation-survey window.

Exclusive to partners

Plus this same dossier on up to 10 of your rivals.

Every partnership includes the full intelligence on your named competitive set, their strengths, their funders, their white-space, so you can see exactly where you lead and where to close the gap. Two rivals with Recognition, five with Partnership, up to ten with Flagship.

Your research, in front of 172,000 academics, with full reporting.

Partnership also places your research as editorial features in the Research Network Report, our newsletter to a verified global academic audience, timed to the reputation-survey season. Every send comes with a full performance report: opens, clicks and geography, benchmarked against the edition.

The Research Network Report

172,000
verified academic subscribers worldwide
Nov–Jan
timed to the reputation-survey season
Full report
opens, clicks and geography on every feature

See your own dossier, built for your university.

Submit your data and we will build and review your enhanced fact file with you, then show exactly how a partnership turns it into advantage, before the index goes public on 1 September 2026.

Request a partnership conversation →
Global Research Partnerships · globalresearchpartnerships.com/rci · Built on the open global research record and the award data of the world's major funders. Methodology.