Research Collaboration Index
A worked example using real, public data for Sorbonne Université (France), a Platinum-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.

◆ Platinum standing · Research Collaboration Index
🌍 Europe · 417 universities benchmarked
114,391
co-authored works, 5 years
1,172
partner universities
80
partner countries
1,094
sustained deep ties
2.49
collaboration impact (FWCI)
97%
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 #17 in the world for connected research, with Decision Sciences #17, Physics & Astronomy #21 close behind: the anchors to build consortia around.
  • Strong on influence and sustained. Sorbonne Université sits in the 100th percentile for influence and the 98th for sustained: genuine, defensible strengths.
  • A genuine bridge, not just a hub. 648 of 668 partners (97%) are non-redundant, so it connects communities that would not otherwise meet.
Challenges
  • Impact is the softest pillar. At the 47th percentile it sits clearly below the others: the single clearest place to build.
  • Network concentration. The top two partner countries (France and United States) carry about 76% of collaboration volume: depth, but a thin long tail.
  • Asia-Pacific white-space. No partnerships reach Asia-Pacific, a region with 34 of the world's leading collaborators.
Opportunities
  • Win HKU. World top-1. University of Hong Kong is top-181 globally in Life 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-96 globally in Life Sciences. Route: Horizon Europe (associated-country participation) or bilateral Royal Society / DFG / ANR schemes.
  • Convert your highest-yield tie. UCL returns the highest impact of your partners (FWCI 9.2). 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.

1,475
h-index of the joint research base
36.4M
citations to co-authored work
2.49
field-weighted citation impact (FWCI)
114,391
co-authored works, 2021-2025
75
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.

Influence100th pctReach98th pctDiversity90th pctSustained98th pctImpact47th pctInternational79th pctBrokerage100th pct

Sorbonne Université is strongest on influence (100th percentile), sustained (98th) and reach (98th). Its brokerage diagnostic shows 648 of 668 partners (97%) are non-redundant, a genuine bridge between communities rather than a wide publisher.

The pillar to watch is Impact (47th 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 Platinum band worldwide.
Influence22% weight100th pct+22.0
Impact18% weight47th pct+8.5
Sustained18% weight98th pct+17.6
Reach16% weight98th pct+15.7
Diversity16% weight90th pct+14.4
International10% weight79th pct+7.9

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#1000Mathematics17Decision Sciences17Physics & Astronomy21Arts & Humanities27Immunology & Microbiol…30
Standout (top 50)Solid (top 150)Ranked

Sorbonne Université's strongest connected fields are Mathematics #17, Decision Sciences #17, Physics & Astronomy #21. The portfolio leans on life sciences; Social Sciences, at world #77 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 #47 for connected research
96/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité10,647
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Sacl…4,149
🇫🇷 Université Sorbonne P…3,145
🇫🇷 Université Paris Scie…2,594
🇫🇷 Université Claude Ber…2,482
Life Sciences
World #45 for connected research
96/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité6,234
🇫🇷 Université Paris Scie…5,412
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Sacl…2,805
🇫🇷 École Pratique des Ha…2,189
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Est …1,299
Physical Sciences & Engineering
World #70 for connected research
94/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Université Paris Scie…19,342
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité16,924
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Sacl…13,154
🇫🇷 École Polytechnique5,424
🇫🇷 Université de Versail…4,068
Social Sciences
World #77 for connected research
94/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Université Paris Scie…4,186
🇫🇷 Université Paris 1 Pa…4,056
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité2,808
🇫🇷 École Pratique des Ha…2,569
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Sacl…1,843
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 yieldUniversité Paris CUniversité Paris SUniversité Claude Université Paris 1
High yieldStandardLow yield

UCL returns the highest impact of the set (FWCI 9.2): a consortium waiting to happen. Université Paris Cité, by contrast, is a sizeable partner returning FWCI 3.2: worth asking what that volume is buying.

PartnerJoint worksFWCIYield
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité26,483 3.2Low yield
🇫🇷 Université Paris Sciences et Lettres24,694 2.5Low yield
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Saclay15,362 2.8Low yield
🇫🇷 École Pratique des Hautes Études9,768 2.2Low yield
🇫🇷 Université Sorbonne Paris Nord5,585 3.3Low yield
🇫🇷 Aix-Marseille Université4,616 3.8Standard
🇫🇷 Université Claude Bernard Lyon 14,499 4.0Standard
🇫🇷 Université de Montpellier4,304 3.2Low yield
🇫🇷 Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines4,120 3.0Low yield
🇫🇷 Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne4,089 1.3Low yield
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 164,611
🇺🇸 United States 37,249
🇬🇧 United Kingdom 18,867
🇩🇪 Germany 14,587
🇮🇹 Italy 11,286
🇪🇸 Spain 6,914
🇨🇳 China 6,163
🇨🇦 Canada 5,871

Anchor partner institutions

🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité 26,483
🇫🇷 Université Paris Sciences et Lettres 24,694
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Saclay 15,362
🇫🇷 École Pratique des Hautes Études 9,768
🇫🇷 Université Sorbonne Paris Nord 5,585
🇫🇷 Aix-Marseille Université 4,616
🇫🇷 Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 4,499
🇫🇷 Université de Montpellier 4,304

The network spans 80 countries and 1,172 universities, but the top two carry about 76% of the volume. That concentration is where the resilience question lives, and the Asia-Pacific white-space (2 of the region's 34 leading collaborators) is the clearest gap to close.

In Mathematics, the single strongest partnership is 🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité, with 1418 joint works: the natural anchor for a flagship consortium.
Source: co-authorship by partner-institution country, 2021–2025

Visualisation 5

The research funding behind the network

€174M464 projects
Horizon EuropeHorizon 2020

€174M across 464 funded projects from the European Commission, split €73M Horizon Europe and €102M 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-181 globally in Life 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-96 globally in Life 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-218 globally in Life 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

🇦🇺 Monash University Australia · world top-7

Monash University is top-121 globally in Life 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.

ITERInstitut de la VisionLaboratoire Kastler BrosselCentre hospitalier national d'ophtalmologie des Quinze-VingtsInstitut d'Astrophysique de ParisStation Biologique de RoscoffInstitut de Mathématiques de Jussieu-Paris Rive GaucheLaboratoire de Génie Électrique et Électronique de Paris
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.

🇨🇦 University of CalgaryCanada
🇳🇿 University of AucklandNew Zealand
🇭🇰 Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHong Kong SAR
King Saud UniversitySA
🇺🇸 Indiana UniversityUnited States

Signature joint research

The most-cited work produced with partners, each verifiable.

Astro and Planetary ScienceStellar, planetary, and galactic studiesParticle physics theoretical and experimental studiesAstrophysics and Star Formation StudiesAstronomy and Astrophysical ResearchGalaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena

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 Asia-Pacific 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 UCL tie into a consortium concept in Life Sciences.

60-90 days
Interrogate the soft spots

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

Subject Award spotlight

Celebrating your significant contributions

We have identified the partnerships below as candidates for the Subject Awards, for a significant contribution to connected research. Each is anchored to a real, cited joint paper, with the lead author taken from that paper's own authorship record.

Physics & Astronomy · candidate
with 🇫🇷 Université Paris Sciences et Lettres
Lead author under editorial review

<i>Gaia</i> Data Release 3

2022 · 3,918 citations

Their most-cited joint work, on stellar, planetary, and galactic studies, has been cited 3,918 times and anchors a 5,418-paper partnership in physics & astronomy.

See the Physics & Astronomy candidates →
Mathematics · candidate
with 🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité
Lead author under editorial review

Global age-sex-specific mortality, life expectancy, and population estimates in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1950–2021, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

2024 · 974 citations

Their most-cited joint work, on covid-19 epidemiological studies, has been cited 974 times and anchors a 1,416-paper partnership in mathematics.

See the Mathematics candidates →
Decision Sciences · candidate
with 🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité
Lead author under editorial review

The Galaxy platform for accessible, reproducible, and collaborative data analyses: 2024 update

2024 · 857 citations

Their most-cited joint work, on scientific computing and data management, has been cited 857 times and anchors a 114-paper partnership in decision sciences.

See the Decision Sciences candidates →
These are candidates, not winners. The full slate is undergoing complete review by our editorial team ahead of the awards, and the Subject Awards are exclusive to partner universities.

Your fact file

Claim the full fact file for Sorbonne Université.

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.