`search_institutions`

Pack: openalex · Endpoint: https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openalex/mcp

Find academic institutions by name or location (e.g., country code ‘US’, ‘GB’). Returns institution name, country, type, publication count, and research areas.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`query`	string	yes	Institution name to search for (e.g., “MIT”)
`_apiKey`	string	no	OpenAlex API key. Optional — Pipeworx supplies one; pass your own to bill your account instead.
`limit`	number	no	Number of results to return (1-25, default 10)

Example call

Arguments

{
  "query": "MIT"
}

curl

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openalex/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"search_institutions","arguments":{"query":"MIT"}}}'

TypeScript (@pipeworx/sdk)

import { Pipeworx } from '@pipeworx/sdk';
const pipeworx = new Pipeworx();

const result = await pipeworx.call('search_institutions', {
  "query": "MIT"
});

More examples

{
  "query": "University of Oxford",
  "limit": 10
}

Response shape

Always returns: total, results

Field	Type	Description
`total`	number	Total number of institutions matching the query
`results`	array

Full JSON Schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "total": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "Total number of institutions matching the query"
    },
    "results": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "id": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "OpenAlex institution ID"
          },
          "display_name": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Institution name"
          },
          "ror": {
            "type": [
              "string",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "Research Organization Registry ID"
          },
          "country_code": {
            "type": [
              "string",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "ISO country code"
          },
          "type": {
            "type": [
              "string",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "Institution type"
          },
          "works_count": {
            "type": "number",
            "description": "Number of works published"
          },
          "cited_by_count": {
            "type": "number",
            "description": "Total citation count"
          },
          "homepage_url": {
            "type": [
              "string",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "Institution homepage URL"
          },
          "top_concepts": {
            "type": "array",
            "items": {
              "type": "string"
            },
            "description": "Top research concepts (up to 5)"
          }
        },
        "required": [
          "id",
          "display_name",
          "ror",
          "country_code",
          "type",
          "works_count",
          "cited_by_count",
          "homepage_url",
          "top_concepts"
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "total",
    "results"
  ]
}

Connect

Add this to your MCP client config, or use one-click install buttons:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openalex": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openalex/mcp"
    }
  }
}

See Getting Started for client-specific install steps.

search_institutions