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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
🌍 Africa: top 1% of 33 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
91%
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 (53th percentile), reach (78th) and sustained partnership (74th).
  • A genuine bridge, not just a hub. 98 of 107 partners (91%) 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 57% 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 71th 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.

419
h-index of the joint research base
3.1M
citations to co-authored work
2.57
field-weighted citation impact (FWCI)
31,121
co-authored works, 2021-2025
66
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.

Influence53th pctReach78th pctDiversity71th pctSustained74th pctImpact52th pctInternational70th pctBrokerage82th pct

University of Pretoria is strongest on network brokerage, reach, sustained. Its brokerage is a defining signal: 98 of 107 partners (91%) 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 Impact (52th 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% weight53th pct+11.7
Impact18% weight52th pct+9.4
Sustained18% weight74th pct+13.3
Reach16% weight78th pct+12.5
Diversity16% weight71th pct+11.4
International10% weight70th pct+7.0

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#1000Veterinary61Dentistry134Agricultural & Biologi…139Immunology & Microbiol…149Health Professions154Environmental Sci.166
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 #432 for connected research
64/100
Top collaboration partners
the Witwatersrand702
Cape Town488
Stellenbosch446
KwaZulu-Natal443
South Africa160
Life Sciences
World #287 for connected research
76/100
Top collaboration partners
the Witwatersrand244
Stellenbosch210
KwaZulu-Natal186
South Africa152
Ghent149
Physical Sciences & Engineering
World #588 for connected research
51/100
Top collaboration partners
the Witwatersrand473
Johannesburg371
Stellenbosch322
South Africa299
Cape Town286
Social Sciences
World #154 for connected research
87/100
Top collaboration partners
South Africa419
Johannesburg241
the Witwatersrand240
Cape Town170
Stellenbosch153
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 yieldthe WitwatersrandStellenboschCape TownSouth Africa
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
University of the Witwatersrand1,654 2.7Low yield
Stellenbosch University1,032 2.9Low yield
University of Cape Town1,025 3.6Standard
University of South Africa891 2.2Low yield
University of KwaZulu-Natal886 3.1Low yield
University of Johannesburg752 3.0Low yield
University of the Free State436 3.0Low yield
North-West University435 2.5Low yield
🇺🇸 University of Florida431 1.4Low yield
🇫🇷 Université de Montpellier278 4.1Standard
Source: institution-to-institution co-authorship ledger + field-weighted citation impact

Visualisation 4

Your global reach, and where it thins out

Top partner countries

ZA 7,111
🇺🇸 United States 5,508
🇬🇧 United Kingdom 3,238
🇦🇺 Australia 1,916
🇫🇷 France 1,215
🇩🇪 Germany 1,087
🇨🇦 Canada 1,040
BR 968

Anchor partner institutions

University of the Witwatersrand 1,654
Stellenbosch University 1,032
University of Cape Town 1,025
University of South Africa 891
University of KwaZulu-Natal 886
University of Johannesburg 752
University of the Free State 436
North-West University 435

The network spans 80 countries and 1,185 universities, but the top two countries carry about 57% 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

€4M34 projects
Horizon EuropeHorizon 2020

€4M across 34 EU-funded projects from the European Commission alone, split €3M Horizon Europe and €1M 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-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)

🇸🇬 Nanyang Technological University Singapore · world top-14

Nanyang Technological University is top-280 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.

Weskoppies Psychiatric HospitalOnderstepoort Veterinary Academic HospitalKalafong HospitalSteve Biko HospitalInter-university Institute for Data Intensive AstronomyForestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute
Arts and HumanitiesSocial SciencesBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyEnvironmental 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.

🇫🇷 Normandie UniversitéFrance
🇩🇪 Friedrich Schiller University JenaGermany
🇨🇦 University of SaskatchewanCanada
🇨🇦 Carleton UniversityCanada
🇦🇺 La Trobe UniversityAustralia

Signature joint research

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

    Biblical Studies and InterpretationLegal Issues in South AfricaPlant Pathogens and Fungal DiseasesWildlife Ecology and ConservationChristian Theology and MissionEcology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies

    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.