`search_institutions`

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

No MCP client? Call it directly: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_institutions for the schema, then POST the same URL with its arguments for the data.

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