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Research Collaboration Index

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.

◆ 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
87%
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 (67th percentile), reach (83th) and sustained partnership (82th).
  • A genuine bridge, not just a hub. 147 of 169 partners (87%) 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 46% 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.

797
h-index of the joint research base
10.2M
citations to co-authored work
2.88
field-weighted citation impact (FWCI)
23,300
co-authored works, 2021-2025
74
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.

Influence67th pctReach83th pctDiversity90th pctSustained82th pctImpact69th pctInternational93th pctBrokerage19th pct

UCLouvain is strongest on network international, diversity, reach. Its brokerage is a defining signal: 147 of 169 partners (87%) are non-redundant, meaning it bridges research communities that would otherwise stay disconnected, rather than simply publishing widely.

The pillar with the most headroom is Brokerage (19th percentile): the single most useful line on the chart, because it points straight at the opportunities 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% weight67th pct+14.7
Impact18% weight69th pct+12.4
Sustained18% weight82th pct+14.8
Reach16% weight83th pct+13.3
Diversity16% weight90th pct+14.4
International10% weight93th pct+9.3

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#1000Medicine140Physics & Astronomy148Psychology174Agricultural & Biologi…190Health Professions208Arts & Humanities217
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 #465 for connected research
61/100
Top collaboration partners
KU Leuven501
Université Libre de Bruxelles366
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité262
Liège233
🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université190
Life Sciences
World #569 for connected research
52/100
Top collaboration partners
Liège209
KU Leuven207
Université Libre de Bruxelles135
Ghent109
🇺🇸 California, Davis78
Physical Sciences & Engineering
World #660 for connected research
45/100
Top collaboration partners
Université Libre de Bruxelles661
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Saclay617
Vrije Universiteit Brussel608
🇺🇸 Florida549
Antwerp517
Social Sciences
World #362 for connected research
70/100
Top collaboration partners
KU Leuven268
Université Libre de Bruxelles209
Ghent144
Liège123
Antwerp118
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 yieldKU LeuvenLiègeUniversité Libre de BruxellesGhent
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
KU Leuven1,194 4.3Standard
University of Liège866 2.0Low yield
Université Libre de Bruxelles858 3.8Standard
Ghent University511 4.5Standard
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité487 6.7Standard
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Saclay452 3.5Standard
University of Antwerp443 3.9Standard
🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université434 4.5Standard
Vrije Universiteit Brussel416 4.1Standard
🇺🇸 Harvard University276 7.0Standard
Source: institution-to-institution co-authorship ledger + field-weighted citation impact

Visualisation 4

Your global reach, and where it thins out

Top partner countries

🇺🇸 United States 6,911
🇫🇷 France 5,539
BE 4,456
🇬🇧 United Kingdom 2,765
🇩🇪 Germany 2,428
🇮🇹 Italy 2,235
🇨🇳 China 1,484
🇳🇱 Netherlands 1,307

Anchor partner institutions

KU Leuven 1,194
University of Liège 866
Université Libre de Bruxelles 858
Ghent University 511
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité 487
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Saclay 452
University of Antwerp 443
🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université 434

The network spans 80 countries and 1,185 universities, but the top two countries carry about 46% 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 your leading field, the university's single strongest partnership is , with 0 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

national + bilateral
Horizon EuropeHorizon 2020

The European Commission award record shows no Horizon funding attributed to this university in the current window, which is common outside the EU. Your enhanced fact file maps the national and bilateral funders that actually back this network, from NSFC, JSPS and A*STAR to NIH, NSF, UKRI and the ERC, each named and linked, so every fundable opportunity below sits next to a real programme that could pay for it.

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.

🇭🇰 University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR · world top-1

University of Hong Kong is top-94 globally in Social Sciences. A natural, fundable bridge you have not yet built at scale.

Funding route: a bilateral programme (e.g. NSFC/DFG/UKRI/NSF or an ERC-eligible consortium)

🇸🇬 National University of Singapore Singapore · world top-2

National University of Singapore is top-115 globally in Social Sciences. A natural, fundable bridge you have not yet built at scale.

Funding route: a bilateral programme (e.g. NSFC/DFG/UKRI/NSF or an ERC-eligible consortium)

🇭🇰 Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR · world top-3

Chinese University of Hong Kong is top-130 globally in Social Sciences. A natural, fundable bridge you have not yet built at scale.

Funding route: a bilateral programme (e.g. NSFC/DFG/UKRI/NSF or an ERC-eligible consortium)

🇬🇧 University of Oxford United Kingdom · world top-4

University of Oxford is top-11 globally in Social Sciences. A natural, fundable bridge you have not yet built at scale.

Funding route: a bilateral programme (e.g. NSFC/DFG/UKRI/NSF or an ERC-eligible consortium)

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.

Cliniques Universitaires Saint-LucCHU Dinant Godinne UCL NamurUCLouvain Saint-Louis Brussels
Physics and AstronomySocial SciencesEconomics, Econometrics and FinanceEarth and Planetary Sciences

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.

🇦🇺 University of TasmaniaAustralia
Tel Aviv UniversityIL
🇨🇦 Université de MontréalCanada
University of the WitwatersrandZA
🇫🇷 Université de BordeauxFrance

Signature joint research

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

    Particle physics theoretical and experimental studiesHigh-Energy Particle Collisions ResearchQuantum Chromodynamics and Particle InteractionsEducation, sociology, and vocational trainingEconomic theories and modelsGeology and Paleoclimatology Research

    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 peers.

    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 peers with Recognition, five with Partnership, up to ten with Flagship.

    Your research, in front of 170,000 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

    170,000
    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 15 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.