First global university collaboration ranking launches Sept. 15

Global Research Partnerships will release the Research Collaboration Index on Sept. 15, ranking 1,195 universities in 81 countries by research collaboration instead of reputation. The free public index uses open scholarly data and says universities cannot pay to influence results.

Why it matters: - The Research Collaboration Index is designed to shift attention from reputation to measurable research partnerships. - The ranking could change which universities receive recognition for global research influence, especially institutions in emerging research nations. - The index is free, public and built to be independently checked, which could challenge paid or opaque ranking models.

What happened: - Global Research Partnerships will publish the Research Collaboration Index publicly on Monday, 15 September 2026 at 09:00 UK time. - The index ranks 1,195 universities across 81 countries. - The launch page is the Research Collaboration Index launch page. - The ranking is built entirely from the open scholarly record and measures millions of co-authored research papers.

The details: - The index uses six published pillars: influence in the global research network, reach and diversity of partnerships, citation impact of joint work, sustained long-term ties and international intensity. - Exact positions are sealed until launch. - Global Research Partnerships says the top of the index will differ from reputation league tables. - Universities from 18 countries will appear in the world top 100. - More than 250 universities from emerging research nations will hold ranked positions, many for the first time in a global index. - The index accepts no submissions, no surveys and no fees. - No university can pay to move in the ranking. - Every figure comes from open data and a published methodology, which allows independent checking and reproduction. - The inaugural Subject Awards include 260 finalists across 26 subject indices. - Each finalist is anchored to a named academic and a cited research project. - Winners will be revealed at launch alongside four Broad Area Awards. - University leadership teams across every continent have already received their institutions' final results under embargo. - Thousands of academics watched the finalist announcement films in the first week. - At launch, Global Research Partnerships will release the overall index, all 26 subject indices, regional and national tables, the complete methodology and a public fact file for every ranked university. - Each ranked university will also receive an enhanced dossier for its own leadership and staff. - All of the material will be free to access.

Between the lines: - The launch frames research collaboration as a more direct measure of academic impact than reputation-based rankings. - The emphasis on open data and reproducibility is meant to make the ranking harder to dismiss as branding or marketing. - The strong showing expected from emerging research nations suggests the index may surface institutions that traditional rankings overlook. - The embargoed results and finalist films indicate the launch is being staged as a major global announcement, not just a technical database release.

What's next: - The full rankings go live at 09:00 UK on 15 September. - Journalists will be able to access regional and subject-level breakdowns at launch. - The 2026 edition will be the first annual publication of the Research Collaboration Index. - Global Research Partnerships says media enquiries, embargoed briefings and interview requests are open ahead of launch. - The countdown is already live on the launch page.

The bottom line: - The Research Collaboration Index aims to make research partnerships visible in a way reputation rankings do not, with a public methodology and no paid entry path.