Research Collaboration Index
A worked example using real, public data for Université de Lille (France), 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
40,758
co-authored works, 5 years
1,122
partner universities
79
partner countries
887
sustained deep ties
1.98
collaboration impact (FWCI)
94%
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 #12 in the world for connected research, with Chemistry #74, Energy #83 close behind: the anchors to build consortia around.
  • Strong on influence and reach. Université de Lille sits in the 94th percentile for influence and the 87th for reach: genuine, defensible strengths.
  • A genuine bridge, not just a hub. 95 of 101 partners (94%) are non-redundant, so it connects communities that would not otherwise meet.
Challenges
  • Impact is the softest pillar. At the 26th percentile it sits clearly below the others: the single clearest place to build.
  • Life Sciences is the at-risk domain. World #368 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 69% of collaboration volume: depth, but a thin long tail.
Opportunities
  • Win HKU. World top-1. University of Hong Kong is top-94 globally in Social Sciences. Route: Horizon Europe (associated-country participation) or bilateral Royal Society / DFG / ANR schemes.
  • Win CUHK. World top-3. Chinese University of Hong Kong is top-130 globally in Social Sciences. Route: Horizon Europe (associated-country participation) or bilateral Royal Society / DFG / ANR schemes.
  • Convert your highest-yield tie. Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 returns the highest impact of your partners (FWCI 4.8). 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.

576
h-index of the joint research base
5.2M
citations to co-authored work
1.98
field-weighted citation impact (FWCI)
40,758
co-authored works, 2021-2025
61
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.

Influence94th pctReach87th pctDiversity80th pctSustained86th pctImpact26th pctInternational66th pctBrokerage89th pct

Université de Lille is strongest on influence (94th percentile), reach (87th) and sustained (86th). Its brokerage diagnostic shows 95 of 101 partners (94%) are non-redundant, a genuine bridge between communities rather than a wide publisher.

The pillar to watch is Impact (26th 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.

InflSustReacDiveInteEach block is a pillar’s weighted contribution; together they place the university in the Gold band worldwide.
Influence22% weight94th pct+20.7
Impact18% weight26th pct+4.7
Sustained18% weight86th pct+15.5
Reach16% weight87th pct+13.9
Diversity16% weight80th pct+12.8
International10% weight66th pct+6.6

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 Engineering12Chemistry74Energy83
Standout (top 50)Solid (top 150)Ranked

Université de Lille's strongest connected fields are Chemical Engineering #12, Chemistry #74, Energy #83. The portfolio leans on social sciences; Life Sciences, at world #368 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 #293 for connected research
76/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université1,806
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité1,698
🇫🇷 Normandie Université964
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Sacl…890
🇫🇷 Université Claude Ber…862
Life Sciences
World #368 for connected research
69/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université538
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité508
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Sacl…453
🇫🇷 Université Paris Scie…324
🇫🇷 Université de Picardi…310
Physical Sciences & Engineering
World #235 for connected research
80/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Université Paris Scie…2,424
🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université1,940
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Sacl…1,675
🇨🇳 Tianjin University1,208
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité942
Social Sciences
World #92 for connected research
92/100
Top collaboration partners
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité887
🇫🇷 Normandie Université796
🇫🇷 Université Paris Scie…675
🇫🇷 Université de Rouen N…641
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Est …630
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 CUniversité Claude Université de Roue
High yieldStandardLow yield

Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 returns the highest impact of the set (FWCI 4.8): a consortium waiting to happen. Université Paris-Saclay, by contrast, is a sizeable partner returning FWCI 2.7: worth asking what that volume is buying.

PartnerJoint worksFWCIYield
🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université3,620 3.6Standard
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité3,094 3.4Standard
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Saclay2,434 2.7Low yield
🇫🇷 Université Paris Sciences et Lettres2,332 2.6Low yield
🇫🇷 Normandie Université1,893 2.2Low yield
🇫🇷 Université Claude Bernard Lyon 11,548 4.8Standard
🇫🇷 Université Grenoble Alpes1,427 2.6Low yield
🇫🇷 Aix-Marseille Université1,314 3.3Standard
🇫🇷 Université de Rouen Normandie1,279 2.0Low yield
🇨🇳 Tianjin University1,258 3.1Standard
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 37,872
🇺🇸 United States 5,564
🇨🇳 China 4,504
🇬🇧 United Kingdom 4,159
🇩🇪 Germany 3,572
🇮🇹 Italy 2,764
🇧🇪 Belgium 2,260
🇨🇦 Canada 1,852

Anchor partner institutions

🇫🇷 Sorbonne Université 3,620
🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité 3,094
🇫🇷 Université Paris-Saclay 2,434
🇫🇷 Université Paris Sciences et Lettres 2,332
🇫🇷 Normandie Université 1,893
🇫🇷 Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 1,548
🇫🇷 Université Grenoble Alpes 1,427
🇫🇷 Aix-Marseille Université 1,314

The network spans 79 countries and 1,122 universities, but the top two carry about 69% of the volume. That concentration is where the resilience question lives, and the North America white-space (0 of the region's 62 leading collaborators) is the clearest gap to close.

In Chemical Engineering, the single strongest partnership is 🇨🇳 Tianjin University, with 116 joint works: the natural anchor for a flagship consortium.
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-94 globally in Social 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-130 globally in Social 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

🇦🇺 Monash University Australia · world top-7

Monash University is top-52 globally in Social 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

🇺🇸 Harvard University United States · world top-8

Harvard University is top-19 globally in Social 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.

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de LilleSavoirs, Textes, LangageInstitut Charles ViolletteMaison Européenne des Sciences de l'Homme et de la SociétéCentre Lillois d'Etudes et de Recherches Sociologiques et EconomiquesCenter for Infection and Immunity of LilleLaboratoire d'Électrotechnique et d'Électronique de Puissance de LilleLaboratoire de Génétique & Evolution des Populations Végétales
Social SciencesHealth ProfessionsEarth and Planetary 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.

🇨🇦 University of ManitobaCanada
🇦🇺 University of WollongongAustralia
🇬🇧 University of BathUnited Kingdom
🇨🇳 Southern University of Science and TechnologyChina
🇺🇸 University of Colorado DenverUnited States

Signature joint research

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

French Urban and Social StudiesEducation, sociology, and vocational trainingSocial Sciences and GovernanceHealth, Medicine and SocietyAtmospheric Ozone and ClimateAtmospheric chemistry and aerosols

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 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 Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 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.

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.

Chemical Engineering · candidate
with 🇨🇳 Tianjin University
Lead author under editorial review

Pulsed electroreduction of low-concentration nitrate to ammonia

2023 · 281 citations

Their most-cited joint work, on ammonia synthesis and nitrogen reduction, has been cited 281 times and anchors a 116-paper partnership in chemical engineering.

See the Chemical Engineering 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 Université de Lille.

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.