Research Collaboration Index
A worked example using real, public data for Ruhr University Bochum (Germany), 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
31,700
co-authored works, 5 years
1,070
partner universities
78
partner countries
817
sustained deep ties
2.61
collaboration impact (FWCI)
90%
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
  • Chemistry is the standout field. Ranked #86 in the world for connected research: the anchors to build consortia around.
  • Strong on sustained and reach. Ruhr University Bochum sits in the 78th percentile for sustained and the 75th for reach: genuine, defensible strengths.
  • A genuine bridge, not just a hub. 143 of 158 partners (90%) are non-redundant, so it connects communities that would not otherwise meet.
Challenges
  • Impact is the softest pillar. At the 54th percentile it sits clearly below the others: the single clearest place to build.
  • Life Sciences is the at-risk domain. World #541 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 66% 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. Harvard University returns the highest impact of your partners (FWCI 9.0). 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.

640
h-index of the joint research base
7.5M
citations to co-authored work
2.61
field-weighted citation impact (FWCI)
31,700
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.

Influence62nd pctReach75th pctDiversity71st pctSustained78th pctImpact54th pctInternational73rd pctBrokerage70th pct

Ruhr University Bochum is strongest on sustained (78th percentile), reach (75th) and international (73rd). Its brokerage diagnostic shows 143 of 158 partners (90%) are non-redundant, a genuine bridge between communities rather than a wide publisher.

The pillar to watch is Impact (54th 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% weight62nd pct+13.6
Impact18% weight54th pct+9.7
Sustained18% weight78th pct+14.0
Reach16% weight75th pct+12.0
Diversity16% weight71st pct+11.4
International10% weight73rd pct+7.3

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#1000Chemistry86
Standout (top 50)Solid (top 150)Ranked

Ruhr University Bochum's strongest connected fields are Chemistry #86. The portfolio leans on physical sciences & engineering; Life Sciences, at world #541 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 #468 for connected research
61/100
Top collaboration partners
🇩🇪 Heidelberg University683
🇩🇪 Ludwig-Maximilians-Un…496
🇩🇪 Heinrich Heine Univer…440
🇩🇪 Universität Hamburg416
🇩🇪 Medizinische Hochschu…383
Life Sciences
World #541 for connected research
55/100
Top collaboration partners
🇩🇪 University of Duisbur…151
🇩🇪 Heidelberg University149
🇩🇪 TU Dortmund University136
🇩🇪 University of Tübingen132
🇩🇪 Ludwig-Maximilians-Un…127
Physical Sciences & Engineering
World #370 for connected research
69/100
Top collaboration partners
🇬🇧 University of Oxford708
🇸🇪 Uppsala University661
🇳🇱 University of Groning…618
🇬🇧 University of Manches…601
🇩🇪 Johannes Gutenberg Un…579
Social Sciences
World #461 for connected research
62/100
Top collaboration partners
🇩🇪 University of Duisbur…362
🇩🇪 TU Dortmund University245
🇩🇪 Heidelberg University103
🇩🇪 Universität Hamburg98
🇩🇪 Ludwig-Maximilians-Un…97
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 yieldUniversity of DuisHeidelberg UniversHumboldt-Universit
High yieldStandardLow yield

Harvard University returns the highest impact of the set (FWCI 9.0): a consortium waiting to happen. University of Duisburg-Essen, by contrast, is a sizeable partner returning FWCI 2.5: worth asking what that volume is buying.

PartnerJoint worksFWCIYield
🇩🇪 University of Duisburg-Essen1,057 2.5Low yield
🇩🇪 Heidelberg University1,030 3.4Standard
🇩🇪 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München810 3.6Standard
🇩🇪 Universität Hamburg736 3.5Standard
🇩🇪 Technical University of Munich657 3.8Standard
🇩🇪 Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf631 3.6Standard
🇩🇪 University of Münster615 2.8Standard
🇩🇪 TU Dortmund University590 2.6Low yield
🇩🇪 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz588 3.8Standard
🇩🇪 Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin570 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

🇩🇪 Germany 17,457
🇺🇸 United States 7,113
🇨🇳 China 3,215
🇬🇧 United Kingdom 2,898
🇫🇷 France 2,062
🇮🇹 Italy 1,727
🇳🇱 Netherlands 1,313
🇦🇺 Australia 1,260

Anchor partner institutions

🇩🇪 University of Duisburg-Essen 1,057
🇩🇪 Heidelberg University 1,030
🇩🇪 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München 810
🇩🇪 Universität Hamburg 736
🇩🇪 Technical University of Munich 657
🇩🇪 Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf 631
🇩🇪 University of Münster 615
🇩🇪 TU Dortmund University 590

The network spans 78 countries and 1,070 universities, but the top two carry about 66% 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 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 Chemistry.

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 Chemistry.

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 Chemistry.

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

🇦🇺 Monash University Australia · world top-7

Monash University is top-215 globally in Physical Sciences. You have no joint publications yet, and it is a natural, fundable bridge in Chemistry.

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.

University Hospitals of the Ruhr-University of BochumInstitute for Advanced Study in the Humanities EssenInstitute for Prevention and Occupational MedicineDigital Humanities Center
Physics and Astronomy

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.

🇩🇰 Aalborg UniversityDenmark
🇺🇸 Case Western Reserve UniversityUnited States
University of TartuEE
Khalifa University of Science and TechnologyAE
🇺🇸 University at Buffalo, State University of New YorkUnited States
Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle InteractionsParticle physics theoretical and experimental studiesIonosphere and magnetosphere dynamicsDust and Plasma Wave PhenomenaHigh-Energy Particle Collisions ResearchAdvanced Chemical Physics 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 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 Harvard University tie into a consortium concept in Physical Sciences & Engineering.

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 Ruhr University Bochum.

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.