Research Partner Finder

Calls that require a consortium arrive with a deadline, and your address book runs out on day two. Upload your project description and get researchers whose published work fits it, each with a short reason.

Find researchers working close to your project

Upload your project description, a concept note or a paper the project builds on. We read what it is about, then shortlist researchers whose published work sits close to it, with a short reason for each. PDF or Word.

Upload your manuscript for an AI journal compliance check

Supported formats: PDF Word (DOCX)

Used only to save your free usage limit. No account, no spam.

Free. Your file is processed transiently and deleted afterwards.

Why partner search always starts too late

A research partner finder suggests researchers whose published work fits a project you are putting together, so you can build a consortium wider than your address book. The need arrives on a deadline. A call asks for partners in at least three countries, or for a work package on a method your group has never run, and the people you would normally write to are already in the proposal or already committed elsewhere. The search that follows is usually done in a week, from memory and from whoever answers first.

That is where consortia go wrong, and reviewers can see it. A proposal assembled from who was available reads differently from one assembled from who was needed: the work packages overlap, one partner has nothing to do in year one, and the section explaining why these institutions belong together is written last and shows it. Starting from published work rather than from availability gives you the opposite problem, which is the better one to have: a list of people who clearly fit, whom you then have to persuade.

What makes a good consortium partner

Owns a work package on their own

A partner exists in a proposal to be responsible for something. If you cannot name the deliverable they would own, they are a co-signature and reviewers read them that way.

Brings what you cannot buy

A cohort, an instrument, access to a site, a licence, a language. Capacity you could subcontract is not a reason to add an institution.

Published on the problem, not the field

Recent output on the specific question is what makes the fit legible to a reviewer. A famous name from the neighbouring subfield does not do that work.

An institution that can hold the role

Calls impose rules on countries, institution types, roles and budget shares, and a grants office has to be able to run the admin behind them. A group that fits the science can still be the wrong legal entity for this call.

Reachable inside your deadline

A partner who cannot get a letter of support signed in three weeks is not a partner for this call. Ask early what their internal deadline is, not just whether they are interested.

Outside your existing circle

Adding the group you already publish with widens the author list, not the consortium. The value of a new partner is the part of the map nobody in the room covers yet.

How the partner shortlist is built

The shortlist is built from your own project document rather than from a topic you type, so every name arrives with the overlap that put it there. What it cannot tell you is whether that group is eligible for your call or willing to join it, and both of those decide the proposal.

  1. Upload your project description

    A concept note, a draft proposal or a paper the project builds on, as PDF or Word. No account and no payment. A free usage limit is tied to your email address.

  2. We extract the topic and methods

    The match runs on what the document says the project will do, not on a keyword you typed or a discipline you picked from a list.

  3. We match against OpenAlex

    Candidates come from OpenAlex, an open catalogue of more than 300 million scholarly works. Only public bibliographic records are used.

  4. You get a shortlist with reasoning

    Each name carries its affiliation and a short note on the overlap with your project, so you can tell in one line why it is there.

  5. You check eligibility and make the ask

    Read the call against each candidate's country, institution type and role before you write. We never contact anyone, we know nothing about the funder, and being on the list says nothing about whether a group is free to join.

Research partner questions

It does not check eligibility, it knows nothing about funders or calls, and it introduces you to nobody. It reads publication records, so it cannot tell you whether an institution is in an eligible country, whether it can hold the role you need, whether the group has capacity for another proposal, or whether they would say yes. Everything that decides a consortium is outside the data we read. What you get is a list of researchers whose published work fits your project, and a reason for each.