Research Collaboration Index
A worked example using real, public data for Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), a Gold-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.

● Gold standing · Research Collaboration Index
🌍 Europe · 417 universities benchmarked
59,436
co-authored works, 5 years
1,081
partner universities
79
partner countries
868
sustained deep ties
2.32
collaboration impact (FWCI)
92%
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
  • Chemical Engineering is the standout field. Ranked #73 in the world for connected research, with Environmental Science #87, Engineering #90 close behind: the anchors to build consortia around.
  • Strong on sustained and diversity. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology sits in the 84th percentile for sustained and the 80th for diversity: genuine, defensible strengths.
  • A genuine bridge, not just a hub. 191 of 206 partners (92%) 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.
  • Health & Medicine is the at-risk domain. World #868 for connected research, far behind the rest of the portfolio: a real gap, not a crown jewel.
  • Network concentration. The top two partner countries (Germany and United States) carry about 57% 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 Paris-Saclay returns the highest impact of your partners (FWCI 6.4). 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.

732
h-index of the joint research base
11.2M
citations to co-authored work
2.32
field-weighted citation impact (FWCI)
59,436
co-authored works, 2021-2025
67
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.

Influence67th pctReach78th pctDiversity80th pctSustained84th pctImpact39th pctInternational75th pctBrokerage84th pct

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is strongest on sustained (84th percentile), diversity (80th) and reach (78th). Its brokerage diagnostic shows 191 of 206 partners (92%) 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 pillar’s weighted contribution; together they place the university in the Gold band worldwide.
Influence22% weight67th pct+14.7
Impact18% weight39th pct+7.0
Sustained18% weight84th pct+15.1
Reach16% weight78th pct+12.5
Diversity16% weight80th pct+12.8
International10% weight75th pct+7.5

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#1000Chemical Engineering73Environmental Sci.87Engineering90Materials Science98
Standout (top 50)Solid (top 150)Ranked

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology's strongest connected fields are Chemical Engineering #73, Environmental Science #87, Engineering #90. The portfolio leans on physical sciences & engineering; Health & Medicine, at world #868 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 #868 for connected research
27/100
Top collaboration partners
🇩🇪 Heidelberg University171
🇩🇪 Universität Ulm77
🇩🇪 Technical University …64
🇩🇪 University of Freiburg53
🇩🇪 Friedrich-Alexander-U…34
Life Sciences
World #596 for connected research
50/100
Top collaboration partners
🇩🇪 Heidelberg University155
🇩🇪 Technical University …67
🇩🇰 Aarhus University59
🇩🇪 Universität Ulm57
🇩🇪 University of Freiburg52
Physical Sciences & Engineering
World #77 for connected research
94/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Sacl…862
🇩🇪 RWTH Aachen University860
🇩🇪 Technical University …783
🇨🇭 ETH Zurich708
🇩🇪 Universität Ulm594
Social Sciences
World #720 for connected research
40/100
Top collaboration partners
🇩🇪 Heidelberg University77
🇩🇪 Technical University …60
🇩🇪 Goethe University Fra…54
🇩🇪 Universität Ulm54
🇩🇪 RWTH Aachen University52
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 yieldHeidelberg UniversTechnical UniversiFriedrich-AlexandeSorbonne Universit
High yieldStandardLow yield

Université Paris-Saclay returns the highest impact of the set (FWCI 6.4): a consortium waiting to happen. Heidelberg University, by contrast, is a sizeable partner returning FWCI 2.9: worth asking what that volume is buying.

PartnerJoint worksFWCIYield
🇩🇪 Heidelberg University794 2.9Low yield
🇩🇪 Technical University of Munich656 3.9Standard
🇩🇪 Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg642 2.2Low yield
🇩🇪 RWTH Aachen University634 3.1Standard
🇩🇪 Universität Ulm624 2.8Low yield
🇩🇪 Technische Universität Darmstadt467 2.8Low yield
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Saclay457 6.4High yield
🇩🇪 University of Stuttgart435 2.4Low yield
🇩🇪 University of Freiburg418 3.3Standard
🇩🇪 Ruhr University Bochum359 3.6Standard
Source: institution-to-institution co-authorship ledger + field-weighted citation impact

Visualisation 4

Your global reach, and where it thins out

Top partner countries

🇩🇪 Germany 11,891
🇺🇸 United States 6,501
🇫🇷 France 3,340
🇨🇳 China 3,215
🇬🇧 United Kingdom 2,593
🇮🇹 Italy 1,907
🇪🇸 Spain 1,352
🇨🇭 Switzerland 1,222

Anchor partner institutions

🇩🇪 Heidelberg University 794
🇩🇪 Technical University of Munich 656
🇩🇪 Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg 642
🇩🇪 RWTH Aachen University 634
🇩🇪 Universität Ulm 624
🇩🇪 Technische Universität Darmstadt 467
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Saclay 457
🇩🇪 University of Stuttgart 435

The network spans 79 countries and 1,081 universities, but the top two 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.

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

Visualisation 5

The research funding behind the network

€389M538 projects
Horizon EuropeHorizon 2020

€389M across 538 funded projects from the European Commission, split €200M Horizon Europe and €189M 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 Chemical Engineering.

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 Chemical Engineering.

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 Chemical Engineering.

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 Chemical 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.

Helmholtz-Institute UlmDVGW-Forschungsstelle am Engler-Bunte-Institut des Karlsruher Instituts für TechnologieTU9In-Service Aircraft for a Global Observing System
Physics and AstronomyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyAgricultural 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.

🇫🇷 Université Côte d'AzurFrance
🇨🇳 Central South UniversityChina
🇨🇦 Simon Fraser UniversityCanada
🇬🇧 University of KentUnited Kingdom
🇫🇮 University of Eastern FinlandFinland
Particle physics theoretical and experimental studiesGenomics and Phylogenetic StudiesMycorrhizal Fungi and Plant InteractionsPlant Pathogens and Fungal DiseasesQuantum Chromodynamics and Particle InteractionsHigh-Energy Particle Collisions Research

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 Paris-Saclay 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 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

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.

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.