Independence Charter · Research Collaboration Index

The Research Collaboration Index is computed from the open global research record on a fixed, published methodology, drawing on the award records of the world's major funders (NIH, NSF, UKRI, the European Research Council, the German Research Foundation, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Australian Research Council, the Canadian tri-agency and the European Commission's CORDIS, among many others). It is free, public, and identical for every university, partner or not. Nothing on this page changes any university's score or position. Partners licence the enhanced fact file, the Connected Research Institution mark, editorial features and academic memberships, not their result.

Six commitments

Computed, not curated

Every university's position is computed by algorithm from the open scholarly record. No editor, no committee and no commercial relationship can change a score.

Identical for everyone

Partners and non-partners are scored on exactly the same method. A university that pays nothing appears, ranks, and may cite its result in full.

Open and reproducible

The data (open co-authorship records and CORDIS funding) is open, and the methodology is published in advance of each edition. Any researcher can rebuild the index and get the same answer.

No surveys, no votes, no licensed data

The index uses no reputation surveys, no citation-count purchases and no licensed commercial datasets that could be influenced by spend.

A published methodology and a robustness report

Each edition ships with its weighting, its indicator definitions and a sensitivity analysis showing the ranking is stable under reasonable alternative choices.

An independent methodology panel

The method is reviewed by an independent panel of scientometricians with no commercial stake in the outcome. (Panel named ahead of the 1 September launch.)

What a partnership does, and does not, include

A partnership never touches your position in the index. It licenses the assets around it:

The intelligence report — analysis and recommendations built around your result, never the result itself.
A licence to use the Connected Research Institution mark and your verified result in your own communications.
Editorial features in the Research Network Report, reaching a global academic audience.
Academic memberships of Global Research Partnerships for your researchers.

A university that never speaks to us still appears in the index, still ranks on the identical method, and is free to cite its result. Partnership buys the intelligence report, the mark licence and the reach, not the rank.

← Read the full methodology · Global Research Partnerships · globalresearchpartnerships.com/rci

The index is not for sale, and never will be.