The Industry Collaboration Index published on 15 October 2026 placed Wageningen University and Research at the top of a new global ranking built on verified research that universities produce together with companies. The Dutch life sciences university finished ahead of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in second place, while three Japanese universities took places in the top five. Cambridge ranked tenth, Oxford twenty-ninth and Harvard thirty-first in the first edition of the index.
The ranking was produced by Global Research Partnerships and was based on 429,958 verified works co-written by 1,192 universities with more than forty thousand company groups. Unlike many league tables, which draw on reputation surveys or citation counts alone, this index looked only at research produced in partnership with industry. The aim was to show which universities are most active in turning academic knowledge into work that companies can use, from new materials and medicines to food, energy and digital tools.
Wageningen
Harvard co-wrote the most research with industry of any university in the study, yet ranked thirty-first overall, showing that volume alone did not decide the final order. The index also weighed the balance and spread of partnerships, and it recognised sector winners in fields such as artificial intelligence, aerospace and aviation. Oxford won twice in the sector awards, with Google in artificial intelligence and Rolls-Royce in aerospace and aviation.
For universities, the result offers a new way to show the value of working with business. Many institutions now run joint laboratories, shared doctoral programmes and spin-out companies, and they argue that such links help students find work, help researchers test ideas in real settings and help local economies grow. The index gives prospective students and employers a clearer picture of where those links are strongest, and where they are still developing.
The full results were published online on 15 October, and the partnership platform behind the index was due to open to partner universities on 19 October. Organisers said the index would be updated as new research appears, so the order could change as universities deepen existing ties or build new ones. For now, Wageningen’s first-place finish was presented as a sign that a specialist life sciences university can lead the world when research and industry work side by side.
Source: WCIA
