CITY ST GEORGES UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

Their core work

City St George's University of London is a research-intensive London university with distinctive strength in computational fluid dynamics (spray injection, cavitation modelling), evolutionary game theory, cybersecurity, and social science research infrastructures. Their engineering groups develop and validate simulation models for industrial spray and fuel injection processes, while their mathematics and computer science teams work on game-theoretic models applied to biology and economics. More recently, the university has become deeply involved in building and sustaining pan-European research infrastructures for the social sciences, including the European Social Survey and open science frameworks.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early H2020 period (2015–2018), the university's activity centred on computational fluid dynamics for industrial applications, evolutionary game theory, philosophy of cognition, and financial economics — reflecting a diverse but researcher-driven portfolio of Marie Curie and ERC grants. From 2019 onward, a clear pivot emerged toward research infrastructure governance, open science, ESFRI roadmap support, and FAIR data principles, suggesting the university increasingly positioned itself as a builder and sustainer of shared European research platforms. The CFD work continued but the social science infrastructure role grew substantially.

Moving from discipline-specific research toward pan-European infrastructure and open science coordination roles — a strong partner for future ESFRI and EOSC-related consortia.

How they like to work

City St George's balances leadership and partnership well: 21 projects as coordinator (36%) shows genuine consortium-building capacity, while 27 as participant and 11 as third party indicate willingness to contribute specialist expertise without needing to lead. With 565 unique partners across 50 countries, they operate as a network hub rather than a loyal-partner institution — they build new connections readily. Their 11 third-party roles (unusually high) suggest they are often brought in for specific expertise contributions to large infrastructure projects.

Exceptionally broad network of 565 unique consortium partners spanning 50 countries, reflecting both the university's London location and its involvement in large pan-European infrastructure projects. The geographic spread is genuinely global, not just Western European.

What sets them apart

City St George's occupies a rare niche as a university that combines hard engineering simulation (CFD, spray dynamics, cavitation) with deep involvement in social science infrastructure governance — an unusual pairing that most universities cannot offer. Their high coordinator rate for a mid-sized institution shows they punch above their weight in consortium leadership. For potential partners, they offer a London-based entry point with genuine cross-disciplinary range, from fuel injection physics to European survey methodology.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CORPLINK
  Largest single grant (EUR 1.6M ERC) — mapping hidden corporate control structures in the global economy, reflecting deep expertise in network analysis and political economy.
• CaFE
  Flagship coordinated project (EUR 1.1M) developing computational models for cavitating flows and surface erosion — their core engineering identity.
• FourCmodelling
  Distinctive project applying evolutionary game theory to complex population dynamics on graphs — mathematically ambitious and highly cited research area.