Research Collaboration Index
A worked example using real, public data for École Polytechnique (France), 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.

○ Silver standing · Research Collaboration Index
🌍 Europe · 417 universities benchmarked
13,427
co-authored works, 5 years
1,009
partner universities
76
partner countries
658
sustained deep ties
2.14
collaboration impact (FWCI)
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
  • Mathematics is the standout field. Ranked #80 in the world for connected research, with Physics & Astronomy #89 close behind: the anchors to build consortia around.
  • Strong on influence and international. École Polytechnique sits in the 89th percentile for influence and the 85th for international: genuine, defensible strengths.
  • A genuine bridge, not just a hub. 170 of 186 partners (91%) are non-redundant, so it connects communities that would not otherwise meet.
Challenges
  • Impact is the softest pillar. At the 31st percentile it sits clearly below the others: the single clearest place to build.
  • Health & Medicine is the at-risk domain. World #1,067 for connected research, far behind the rest of the portfolio: a real gap, not a crown jewel.
  • Network concentration. The top two partner countries (France and United States) carry about 74% of collaboration volume: depth, but a thin long tail.
Opportunities
  • Win HKU. World top-1. University of Hong Kong is top-127 globally in Physical Sciences. Route: Horizon Europe (associated-country participation) or bilateral Royal Society / DFG / ANR schemes.
  • Win NUS. World top-2. National University of Singapore is top-56 globally in Physical Sciences. Route: Horizon Europe (associated-country participation) or bilateral Royal Society / DFG / ANR schemes.
  • Convert your highest-yield tie. Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines returns the highest impact of your partners (FWCI 5.2). 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.

722
h-index of the joint research base
6.5M
citations to co-authored work
2.14
field-weighted citation impact (FWCI)
13,427
co-authored works, 2021-2025
58
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.

Influence89th pctReach63rd pctDiversity57th pctSustained62nd pctImpact31st pctInternational85th pctBrokerage60th pct

École Polytechnique is strongest on influence (89th percentile), international (85th) and reach (63rd). Its brokerage diagnostic shows 170 of 186 partners (91%) are non-redundant, a genuine bridge between communities rather than a wide publisher.

The pillar to watch is Impact (31st 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 pillar’s weighted contribution; together they place the university in the Silver band worldwide.
Influence22% weight89th pct+19.6
Impact18% weight31st pct+5.6
Sustained18% weight62nd pct+11.2
Reach16% weight63rd pct+10.1
Diversity16% weight57th pct+9.1
International10% weight85th pct+8.5

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-50 standout, blue a solid position.

#1#10#100#1000Mathematics80Physics & Astronomy89
Standout (top 50)Solid (top 150)Ranked

École Polytechnique's strongest connected fields are Mathematics #80, Physics & Astronomy #89. The portfolio leans on physical sciences & engineering; Health & Medicine, at world #1,067 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 #1067 for connected research
11/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Université Paris Scie…350
🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université320
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Sacl…308
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité200
🇫🇷 Université de Lille72
Life Sciences
World #973 for connected research
19/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Université Paris Scie…336
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Sacl…319
🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université257
🇫🇷 Université de Lille233
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité180
Physical Sciences & Engineering
World #553 for connected research
54/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université5,424
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Sacl…4,604
🇫🇷 Université Paris Scie…4,591
🇫🇷 École nationale des p…2,259
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité1,687
Social Sciences
World #849 for connected research
29/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Université Paris Scie…1,070
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Sacl…440
🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université437
🇫🇷 École nationale des p…184
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité145
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 yieldSorbonne UniversitUniversité Paris SUniversité de LillUniversité de Vers
High yieldStandardLow yield

Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines returns the highest impact of the set (FWCI 5.2): a consortium waiting to happen. Université de Lille, by contrast, is a sizeable partner returning FWCI 1.9: worth asking what that volume is buying.

PartnerJoint worksFWCIYield
🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université3,813 2.8Standard
🇫🇷 Université Paris Sciences et Lettres3,764 2.7Standard
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Saclay3,326 2.7Standard
🇫🇷 École nationale des ponts et chaussées1,463 3.5Standard
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité1,244 3.0Standard
🇫🇷 Aix-Marseille Université612 3.2Standard
🇫🇷 Université de Lille593 1.9Low yield
🇫🇷 Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines567 5.2High yield
🇫🇷 Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1380 2.9Standard
🇫🇷 Université Grenoble Alpes369 3.4Standard
Source: institution-to-institution co-authorship ledger + field-weighted citation impact

Visualisation 4

Your global reach, and where it thins out

Top partner countries

🇫🇷 France 21,859
🇺🇸 United States 4,330
🇬🇧 United Kingdom 2,598
🇩🇪 Germany 1,833
🇨🇳 China 1,625
🇮🇹 Italy 1,094
🇯🇵 Japan 1,020
🇨🇭 Switzerland 876

Anchor partner institutions

🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université 3,813
🇫🇷 Université Paris Sciences et Lettres 3,764
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Saclay 3,326
🇫🇷 École nationale des ponts et chaussées 1,463
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité 1,244
🇫🇷 Aix-Marseille Université 612
🇫🇷 Université de Lille 593
🇫🇷 Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines 567

The network spans 76 countries and 1,009 universities, but the top two carry about 74% 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.

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

Visualisation 5

The research funding behind the network

€50M91 projects
Horizon EuropeHorizon 2020

€50M across 91 funded projects from the European Commission, split €29M Horizon Europe and €21M 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.

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

University of Hong Kong is top-127 globally in Physical Sciences. You have no joint publications yet, and it is a natural, fundable bridge in Mathematics.

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

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

National University of Singapore is top-56 globally in Physical Sciences. You have no joint publications yet, and it is a natural, fundable bridge in Mathematics.

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

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

Chinese University of Hong Kong is top-150 globally in Physical Sciences. You have no joint publications yet, and it is a natural, fundable bridge in Mathematics.

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

🇬🇧 University College London United Kingdom · world top-5

University College London is top-93 globally in Physical Sciences. You have no joint publications yet, and it is a natural, fundable bridge in Mathematics.

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.

Laboratoire d'Optique et BiosciencesLaboratoire de Météorologie DynamiqueLaboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers IntensesCentre de Mathématiques Laurent SchwartzLaboratoire des Solides IrradiésLaboratoire Mécanique des SolidesLaboratoire d'Hydrodynamique de l'École polytechniqueLaboratoire de Biologie Structurale de la Cellule
Physics and AstronomyEngineering

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.

🇯🇵 The University of OsakaJapan
🇫🇷 AgroParisTechFrance
🇫🇷 Institut polytechnique de GrenobleFrance
🇮🇱 Ben-Gurion University of the NegevIsrael
🇺🇸 Tulane UniversityUnited States
Particle physics theoretical and experimental studiesQuantum Chromodynamics and Particle InteractionsHigh-Energy Particle Collisions ResearchLaser-Plasma Interactions and DiagnosticsLaser-Matter Interactions and ApplicationsLaser-induced spectroscopy and plasma

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 HKU and a Middle East 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 Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines tie into a consortium concept in Physical Sciences & Engineering.

60-90 days
Interrogate the soft spots

Address the impact gap and the health & medicine 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 École Polytechnique.

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.