Research Collaboration Index
A worked example using real, public data for Aalborg University (Denmark), a Silver-band university.  See a world-leading example (Oxford) →

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.

โ—‹ Silver standing · Research Collaboration Index
๐ŸŒ Europe · 417 universities benchmarked
34,726
co-authored works, 5 years
1,097
partner universities
78
partner countries
822
sustained deep ties
2.32
collaboration impact (FWCI)
93%
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
  • Engineering is the standout field. Ranked #63 in the world for connected research: the anchors to build consortia around.
  • Strong on reach and international. Aalborg University sits in the 81st percentile for reach and the 81st for international: genuine, defensible strengths.
  • A genuine bridge, not just a hub. 119 of 128 partners (93%) are non-redundant, so it connects communities that would not otherwise meet.
Challenges
  • Impact is the softest pillar. At the 39th percentile it sits clearly below the others: the single clearest place to build.
  • Life Sciences is the at-risk domain. World #697 for connected research, far behind the rest of the portfolio: a real gap, not a crown jewel.
  • Network concentration. The top two partner countries (Denmark and United Kingdom) carry about 46% of collaboration volume: depth, but a thin long tail.
Opportunities
  • Win Yale University. World top-17. Yale University is top-71 globally in Social Sciences. Route: Horizon Europe (associated-country participation) or bilateral Royal Society / DFG / ANR schemes.
  • Win University of California San Diego. World top-18. University of California San Diego is top-252 globally in Social Sciences. Route: Horizon Europe (associated-country participation) or bilateral Royal Society / DFG / ANR schemes.
  • Convert your highest-yield tie. University of Oxford returns the highest impact of your partners (FWCI 6.8). Formalise it into a funded consortium to compound impact, not just volume.

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.

547
h-index of the joint research base
4.5M
citations to co-authored work
2.32
field-weighted citation impact (FWCI)
34,726
co-authored works, 2021-2025
64
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.

Influence66th pctReach81st pctDiversity71st pctSustained79th pctImpact39th pctInternational81st pctBrokerage72nd pct

Aalborg University is strongest on reach (81st percentile), international (81st) and sustained (79th). Its brokerage diagnostic shows 119 of 128 partners (93%) are non-redundant, a genuine bridge between communities rather than a wide publisher.

The pillar to watch is Impact (39th percentile), the softest of the six and the clearest place to build.

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 pillarโ€™s weighted contribution; together they place the university in the Silver band worldwide.
Influence22% weight66th pct+14.5
Impact18% weight39th pct+7.0
Sustained18% weight79th pct+14.2
Reach16% weight81st pct+13.0
Diversity16% weight71st pct+11.4
International10% weight81st pct+8.1

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-50 standout, blue a solid position.

#1#10#100#1000Engineering63
Standout (top 50)Solid (top 150)Ranked

Aalborg University's strongest connected fields are Engineering #63. The portfolio leans on social sciences; Life Sciences, at world #697 in the deep-dive below, is the clear at-risk area, exactly the gap this chart surfaces.

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 #342 for connected research
71/100
Top collaboration partners
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง University of Liverpoโ€ฆ1,171
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ University of Copenhaโ€ฆ1,009
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Aarhus University907
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ University of Southerโ€ฆ747
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Liverpool John Mooresโ€ฆ660
Life Sciences
World #697 for connected research
42/100
Top collaboration partners
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Aarhus University259
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ University of Copenhaโ€ฆ247
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ University of Southerโ€ฆ135
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Technical University โ€ฆ85
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ The University of Melโ€ฆ58
Physical Sciences & Engineering
World #272 for connected research
77/100
Top collaboration partners
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Technical University โ€ฆ523
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Aarhus University409
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ University of Electroโ€ฆ303
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช KTH Royal Institute oโ€ฆ206
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ Zhejiang University204
Social Sciences
World #176 for connected research
85/100
Top collaboration partners
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Aarhus University433
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ University of Copenhaโ€ฆ253
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ University of Southerโ€ฆ222
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Copenhagen Business Sโ€ฆ97
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Roskilde University93
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 yieldAarhus UniversityUniversity of CopeUniversity of SoutUniversity of Oxfo
High yieldStandardLow yield

University of Oxford returns the highest impact of the set (FWCI 6.8): a consortium waiting to happen. Aarhus University, by contrast, is a sizeable partner returning FWCI 2.4: worth asking what that volume is buying.

PartnerJoint worksFWCIYield
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Aarhus University1,885 2.4Low yield
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ University of Copenhagen1,642 2.8Low yield
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ University of Southern Denmark1,295 2.1Low yield
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง University of Liverpool1,242 4.2Standard
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Technical University of Denmark639 2.7Low yield
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Liverpool John Moores University615 5.1Standard
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ University of Electronic Science and Technology of China276 4.2Standard
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง University College London259 4.9Standard
๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด Norwegian University of Science and Technology230 3.9Standard
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช Karolinska Institutet224 4.7Standard
Source: institution-to-institution co-authorship ledger + field-weighted citation impact

Visualisation 4

Your global reach, and where it thins out

Top partner countries

๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Denmark 5,749
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง United Kingdom 4,457
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China 3,798
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ United States 2,860
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Italy 1,598
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช Germany 1,279
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Australia 1,233
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช Sweden 1,127

Anchor partner institutions

๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Aarhus University 1,885
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ University of Copenhagen 1,642
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ University of Southern Denmark 1,295
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง University of Liverpool 1,242
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Technical University of Denmark 639
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Liverpool John Moores University 615
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ University of Electronic Science and Technology of China 276
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง University College London 259

The network spans 78 countries and 1,097 universities, but the top two carry about 46% of the volume. That concentration is where the resilience question lives, and the North America white-space (6 of the region's 62 leading collaborators) is the clearest gap to close.

Source: co-authorship by partner-institution country, 2021–2025

Visualisation 5

The research funding behind the network

โ‚ฌ156M352 projects
Horizon EuropeHorizon 2020

€156M across 352 funded projects from the European Commission, split €78M Horizon Europe and €77M Horizon 2020, every project traceable to the funder's own record (CORDIS). The fact file adds the ERC and the 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.

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Yale University United States · world top-17

Yale University is top-71 globally in Social Sciences. You have no joint publications yet, and it is a natural, fundable bridge in Engineering.

Funding route: Horizon Europe (associated-country participation) or bilateral Royal Society / DFG / ANR schemes

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ University of California San Diego United States · world top-18

University of California San Diego is top-252 globally in Social Sciences. You have no joint publications yet, and it is a natural, fundable bridge in Engineering.

Funding route: Horizon Europe (associated-country participation) or bilateral Royal Society / DFG / ANR schemes

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ University of British Columbia Canada · world top-19

University of British Columbia is top-66 globally in Social Sciences. You have no joint publications yet, and it is a natural, fundable bridge in Engineering.

Funding route: Horizon Europe (associated-country participation) or bilateral Royal Society / DFG / ANR schemes

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Duke University United States · world top-22

Duke University is top-140 globally in Social Sciences. You have no joint publications yet, and it is a natural, fundable bridge in Engineering.

Funding route: Horizon Europe (associated-country participation) or bilateral Royal Society / DFG / ANR schemes

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.

Aalborg University HospitalAalborg Centre for Problem Based Learning in Engineering Science and Sustainability
EngineeringPsychologySocial 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.

๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ University of TwenteNetherlands
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช University of Duisburg-EssenGermany
๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท Universitรฉ Sorbonne Paris NordFrance
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Case Western Reserve UniversityUnited States
University of TartuEE
Microgrid Control and OptimizationEducation, Healthcare and Sociology ResearchSocial and Educational SciencesMultilevel Inverters and ConvertersAdvanced DC-DC ConvertersSmart Grid Energy Management

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 Yale University and a North America hub as formal partnership targets; brief the relevant deans with the joint white-space evidence.

30-60 days
Open the funding route

Scope the specific programme for each target, and turn the University of Oxford tie into a consortium concept in Social Sciences.

60-90 days
Interrogate the soft spots

Address the impact gap and the life sciences weakness; set a diversification target for the long tail; and secure an editorial feature in the reputation-survey window.

Your fact file

Claim the full fact file for Aalborg University.

Everything above is the open view. The full partner fact file goes further: every ranked subject and subfield, the complete partner ledger with yield, your named academics and their signature work, the funder-by-funder route map for each target, and this same dossier on up to ten named rivals.

Partner fact file · locked

Unlocked for partners. Confirm before 12:00, 22 July 2026 to be included at the 1 September launch.

Claim your fact file →

Free to claim and verify your data. No obligation. Your ranking is unaffected by partnership, and always will be.

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.

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