European Commission report says alliance universities lead in collaboration and industry engagement

A report from the European Commission's Education and Culture Executive Agency has found that European universities alliances are significantly outperforming their peers in research collaboration and industry engagement, and are acting as central hubs in the continent's innovation ecosystems.

The 2026 report, published on 27/02/2026 and titled “Universities in innovation ecosystems and the role of the European universities alliances”, is based on data from the European Higher Education Sector Observatory (EHESO) and the European Higher Education Sector Scoreboard (EHESS).

It highlights that while national innovation profiles vary across the EU, membership in an alliance acts as a major differentiator for institutional performance.

The study finds that alliance member institutions are “significantly more engaged in collaborative research” than non-member universities. According to the data, a typical alliance member has a median of about ten collaborations in EU Framework Programme (FP) projects with industry partners, whereas the typical institution outside of these alliances has none…