Launching q4 2026
THE INDUSTRY DEMANDED AN ALTERNATIVE
Substantive Rankings
The
data-led
benchmark
of analyst value
Built from the evaluation data the buy-side already produces. No surveys. No lobbying. No qualitative polls.
Backed by
For asset managers and hedge funds
Get a benchmark of analyst value - without filling in another survey
What you get
Free access at launch
Participating firms get free access to detailed rankings in November. Non-participants will miss out.
Results
Understand how different research providers and analyst perform, by region and sector. Bring these into any internal workflows.
A submission report
Analytics and insights into how your research evaluation process and how it compares.
You already evaluate sell-side research. The rankings you currently see published come from somewhere else – a separate survey, with limited participation and a lot of campaigning around it.
Substantive Rankings uses the evaluation data you already produce – votes, interactions, scorecards – to produce a governed, anonymized benchmark of which analysts the market actually values. Participation is sell-side funded. You get the insight back.
Portfolio Manager
Onboarding new coverage
“I’m taking on semiconductors — who are the top-ranked analysts I should start with?”
Portfolio Manager
LLM integration
“Who’s the highest-ranked consumer staples analyst who’s bearish on PepsiCo?”
Research Management
Benchmarking
“Which broker do we value that the street doesn’t and how do we use that?”
Research Management
Budgeting & oversight
“Where do our interactions and evaluations disagree, and what does that mean for next year’s budget?”
join the launch cohort
The buy-side launch cohort is closing. Submit your data now and get complementary access to the full rankings, trends, and data extracts behind them. This is a limited time offer. It takes one conversation to get started.
For Brokers and Research Providers
The rankings your buy-side clients actually trust
Incumbent equities analyst rankings are survey-led, lobbying-heavy, and time-consuming to participate in. Substantive Rankings replaces that with a data-led benchmark drawn directly from buy-side firms covering 80% of the wallet. The result is competitive intelligence you can act on, without the survey campaign.
What you'll see
Equities Rankings
See exactly how your teams and analysts stack up — filter by sector, region, and provider; arrange by how you see the world.
Spot the trends
Track buy-side demand and analyst movement across the market – by sector, by region, quarter over quarter.
Transparent methodology
Clear, documented approaches.
No lobbying, no manual scoring.
Research Leadership
Strategic positioning
See where your analysts rank by sector, region, and over time – against the economic potential, not sparse survey responses.
Sales & Marketing
Pitch evidence
Use rankings as evidence in client conversations and investment
banking pitches.
Sales & Marketing
Performance alignment
Inform workforce decisions, analyst compensation, and team structure with economically-aligned data.
Strategy
Trend spotting
Spot rising stars, both internally and externally, and track period-on-period shifts.
For Corporate IR Teams
Identify the research providers who actually move your sector
IR teams allocate scarce time across dozens of analysts. Substantive Rankings shows which sell-side analysts the buy-side actually values – by sector, by region, by trend – based on real engagement data, not survey popularity. Use it to prioritize who to engage, who to brief first, and who to invest the relationship in.
Coverage prioritization
“Which analysts in our sector are most valued by the buy-side this quarter?”
Roadshow planning
“Which analysts should we make sure to brief?”
Influence tracking
“Who’s gaining traction with our shareholders?”
Five choices that make Substantive Rankings different
Data-driven methodology
Rankings reflect real economic value – built around whatever process each buy-side firm uses to evaluate research and allocate spend. Every score is auditable and explainable.
Global live coverage
Launch results drawn from thousands of voices representing the majority of global research spend. Sector and region rankings across global equities, with all regions released simultaneously and updated regularly.
Gaming-resistant by design
Standardized classifications, anonymized aggregation, and submission validation are core architecture – not bolted on. No room for lobbying campaigns or biased rankings.
Enterprise-grade governance
Data is ring-fenced and processed in compliant cloud environments with restricted access. Full information security governance aligned to institutional due diligence requirements.
A tech- and data-first approach
Substantive Research is a technology and data company by design, backed by Euronext. The rankings are a software product: versioned, tested, and built to scale – not an annual publication.
Built with the market, not for it
“Substantive Research combines deep expertise in research valuation with a platform built around the real operating needs of buy-side firms. They understand the regulatory, commercial, and workflow challenges.”
GLOBAL DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH
Top 10 Broker
How it works
Three steps. Your existing process. No surveys. No extra work.
Buy-side submits
Votes, interactions, scorecards, payments. Whatever your firm already produces — no new surveys, no extra workflows.
We crunch
A comprehensive methodology enables producing rankings that reflect your process – whatever it looks like.
We publish & report
Continuous datasets with annual awards. Data extracts make it easy to dig into what makes a difference for you.
WILL NYKOPP, CFA
“We built Substantive Rankings around a simple idea: research rankings should represent how the buy-side actually values sell-side research. That’s a clear, reliable signal for any market participant. The firms joining us now get to shape how that idea becomes reality.”
The questions we hear most
A data-led benchmark of sell-side research analysts and providers, built from the evaluation data the buy-side already produces.
Substantive Research is a technology and data company backed by Euronext; The rankings are designed to replace survey-led rankings with something governed, transparent alternative.
Free access applies to the initial buy-side cohort. Data collection is now live.
Submitting your data earns you a personalized submission report and access to rankings when released in November.
Substantive Rankings first awards launch in Q4 2026.
Participating sell-side firms will receive embargoed previews ahead of public release to review results and provide feedback.
Unlike incumbents who rely on qualitative surveys, Substantive Rankings is built entirely from objective evaluation data that the buy-side uses to choose and remunerate sell-side research providers. There is no qualitative poll.
All score data is fungible and enables a true apples-for-apples competitive evaluation at a sell-side provider and analyst level.
Participating in Substantive Rankings is independent of any other ranking you take part in today.
We are explicitly building this so that the buy-side does not need to fill in another survey:
You can keep doing whatever you currently do for incumbent rankings while submitting to us.
Yes.
Individual firm submissions or data points are never published or shared.
All submissions are aggregated before publication to ensure no individual firm is identifiable.
Data is processed in a ring-fenced, enterprise-security environment with full Euronext governance.
We acknowledge different levels of research evaluation sophistication and aim to cater to all.
As long as the process is economically aligned and we have an indicator of sell-side analyst usage, we will load it.
Typical submissions include formal evaluation data (such as a broker vote) and interaction data.
Substantive Research, a Euronext company.
Substantive Research has been a research-spend analytics partner to over leading asset managers for over a decade;
We are now extending that work into analyst rankings by popular demand.
Insights
Benchmarking Analyst Quality in an AI-Driven Research Market: Substantive Research Launches Data-Driven Analyst Rankings
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New Survey Shows US Investment Research Budgets Recover Post-MiFID II, but European Research Spend Languishes
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