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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
89%
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 (69th percentile), reach (78th) and sustained partnership (81th).
  • A genuine bridge, not just a hub. 180 of 201 partners (89%) 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 39% 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 98th 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.

830
h-index of the joint research base
9.3M
citations to co-authored work
3.11
field-weighted citation impact (FWCI)
29,419
co-authored works, 2021-2025
83
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.

Influence69th pctReach78th pctDiversity98th pctSustained81th pctImpact79th pctInternational95th pctBrokerage41th pct

University of Antwerp is strongest on network diversity, international, sustained. Its brokerage is a defining signal: 180 of 201 partners (89%) 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 (41th 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% weight69th pct+15.2
Impact18% weight79th pct+14.2
Sustained18% weight81th pct+14.6
Reach16% weight78th pct+12.5
Diversity16% weight98th pct+15.7
International10% weight95th pct+9.5

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#1000Arts & Humanities26Medicine91Immunology & Microbiol…115Biochem. & Mol. Biology119Agricultural & Biologi…131Neuroscience141
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 #367 for connected research
69/100
Top collaboration partners
KU Leuven1,108
Ghent699
Vrije Universiteit Brussel494
🇸🇪 Karolinska Institutet283
🇳🇱 Maastricht276
Life Sciences
World #448 for connected research
63/100
Top collaboration partners
KU Leuven401
Ghent371
🇬🇧 UCL175
🇳🇱 Radboud Nijmegen167
🇬🇧 Oxford156
Physical Sciences & Engineering
World #630 for connected research
47/100
Top collaboration partners
Ghent684
Vrije Universiteit Brussel640
KU Leuven569
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Saclay543
UCLouvain517
Social Sciences
World #383 for connected research
68/100
Top collaboration partners
KU Leuven587
Ghent357
Vrije Universiteit Brussel168
🇳🇱 Amsterdam153
🇳🇱 Utrecht118
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 LeuvenGhentVrije Universiteit BrusselMaastricht
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 Leuven2,474 3.4Standard
Ghent University1,795 3.6Standard
Vrije Universiteit Brussel1,085 2.6Low yield
🇳🇱 Maastricht University532 3.6Standard
🇬🇧 University College London484 6.8Standard
🇬🇧 University of Oxford463 7.7High yield
🇳🇱 University of Amsterdam463 8.6High yield
🇳🇱 Radboud University Nijmegen445 5.6Standard
Université Libre de Bruxelles445 4.1Standard
UCLouvain443 3.9Standard
Source: institution-to-institution co-authorship ledger + field-weighted citation impact

Visualisation 4

Your global reach, and where it thins out

Top partner countries

BE 6,616
🇺🇸 United States 5,104
🇬🇧 United Kingdom 4,301
🇳🇱 Netherlands 3,800
🇩🇪 Germany 3,022
🇫🇷 France 2,994
🇮🇹 Italy 2,313
🇦🇺 Australia 1,531

Anchor partner institutions

KU Leuven 2,474
Ghent University 1,795
Vrije Universiteit Brussel 1,085
🇳🇱 Maastricht University 532
🇬🇧 University College London 484
🇬🇧 University of Oxford 463
🇳🇱 University of Amsterdam 463
🇳🇱 Radboud University Nijmegen 445

The network spans 80 countries and 1,185 universities, but the top two countries carry about 39% 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 Arts & Humanities, the university's single strongest partnership is KU Leuven, with 36 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

€221M418 projects
Horizon EuropeHorizon 2020

€221M across 418 EU-funded projects from the European Commission alone, split €114M Horizon Europe and €107M Horizon 2020, every project traceable to the funder's own award record (CORDIS). Your enhanced 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.

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

University of Hong Kong is top-146 globally in Health 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-85 globally in Health 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-132 globally in Health 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 Edinburgh United Kingdom · world top-9

University of Edinburgh is top-147 globally in Health 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.

Antwerp Management SchoolAntwerp University HospitalVIB-UAntwerp Center for Molecular Neurology
Physics and AstronomyAgricultural and Biological 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.

🇺🇸 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiUnited States
🇨🇳 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina
🇨🇭 University of BaselSwitzerland
🇯🇵 The University of TokyoJapan
🇮🇹 Sapienza University of RomeItaly

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 InteractionsQuantum and electron transport phenomenaPhysics of Superconductivity and MagnetismAnimal Behavior and Reproduction

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.