ANKARA YILDIRIM BEYAZIT UNIVERSITESI

Their core work

Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University is a public research university in Ankara, Turkey, with a small but thematically diverse EU research footprint. Their recorded H2020 work spans two distinct domains: advanced electromagnetic engineering — specifically terahertz-frequency photomixer arrays steered by nano-actuators — and pandemic science communication, including digital tools for epidemic tracing and social media-based knowledge transfer between scientists and the public. The university has demonstrated institutional capacity to host MSCA Individual Fellows and to participate as a partner in multinational Research and Innovation Actions. With only two EU projects on record, their profile most likely reflects the specializations of individual faculty members rather than a unified institutional research agenda.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their earliest EU project (2015–2017) was deeply technical: terahertz photomixer array design combining high-frequency photonics with nano-mechanical actuation, a niche engineering challenge with no social science dimension. By 2021–2023, their active project had shifted entirely to public health and digital communication — pandemic tracing applications, epidemic monitoring, and social media as a vehicle for science outreach. The two domains share no obvious technical bridge, which strongly suggests the shift reflects different research teams within the university rather than an institutional strategic pivot.

Their most recent EU work points toward the science-society interface — public health emergencies, digital outreach, and epidemic knowledge transfer — which may position AYBU as a useful bridge partner for health communication or digital society consortia, though the evidence base is thin.

How they like to work

AYBU has taken both the coordinator role (TERA-NANO, as an MSCA-IF host institution) and a participating partner role (PandeVITA), showing structural flexibility rather than a fixed consortium position. Their combined network of 7 unique partners across two projects points to small, targeted collaborations rather than large open consortia. With only two projects recorded, no repeating partner patterns can be identified — each collaboration appears to have been built from scratch for its specific scientific context.

AYBU has collaborated with 7 unique partners across 5 countries, a modest but genuinely international footprint consistent with MSCA and H2020 participation requirements. Their network is European-facing by design, with no evidence of purely regional or domestic-only partnerships in EU-funded work.

What sets them apart

Founded in 2010, AYBU is one of Turkey's newer public universities, yet it has already secured both an MSCA Individual Fellowship coordinator role and an RIA partnership — a meaningful signal of internationalization ambition for an institution of its age. Their dual presence in advanced photonics engineering and pandemic public health communication makes them an unusual profile: few Turkish HES institutions bridge physics-level instrumentation research and social science communication work. That said, the two projects are isolated data points; any partner considering AYBU should verify which specific research groups are active and whether EU engagement has continued beyond 2023.

Highlights from their portfolio

• TERA-NANO
  AYBU served as coordinator of this MSCA Individual Fellowship project on terahertz photomixer arrays — their largest EC award (EUR 157,846) and the strongest evidence of advanced photonics engineering capacity.
• PandeVITA
  This RIA project on pandemic virus tracing and science-society knowledge transfer shows AYBU's willingness to operate outside engineering into public health and digital communication, broadening their consortium appeal.