New index ranks University of Arizona among top 10% worldwide for international research collaborations
Biosphere 2's Landscape Evolution Observatory, the world’s largest controlled indoor earth science experiment, is home to several collaborations connecting U of A researchers with scientists from around the world.
The Research Collaboration Index, a new ranking of 1,195 colleges and universities across 81 countries, places the University of Arizona in the top 10% worldwide for collaborative international research. A high ranking on the index signals that a university is among global leaders in team science and scholarship and that its research has worldwide reach: more often co-authored with and cited by experts from multiple countries.
The index also ranks the U of A first in the U.S. Southwest and in the Big 12 Conference, which includes 14 other universities with R1 designation — the highest tier of research activity among U.S. institutions, according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The university earned further distinction in several specific disciplines, including ranking among the top 4% of institutions worldwide for earth and planetary sciences and physics and astronomy.
According to London-based Global Research Partnerships, the organization that compiled the index, schools were evaluated using data from publicly available records of more than 26 million co-authored works published between 2021 and 2025, with funding data verified directly from major international grantmakers. Schools were scored in six areas: network influence, partner reach, partner-country diversity, citation impact of joint output, sustained deep partnerships and international intensity.
In a press release announcing the rankings, Global Research Partnerships stated that the index accepts no submissions, surveys or fees, that no university can pay to improve its ranking, and that all results can be independently verified and reproduced based on their open data source and published methodology.
The university's rankings on the index were also reported by U of A Marketing & Communications.