IZMIR KATIP CELEBI UNIVERSITESI

Their core work

Izmir Katip Celebi University is a young Turkish public university based in Izmir with a diverse but thin H2020 footprint spanning health sciences, historical research, and green energy. Their participation includes pharmacovigilance work on medication safety in pregnancy (ConcePTION), an ERC-funded study of Ottoman-era financial and political networks in Mediterranean port cities (JANET), and coordination support actions in aeronautics and green energy awareness. The university appears to be building its European research profile across multiple faculties rather than concentrating on a single domain.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

IKCU's early H2020 involvement (2017-2019) centered on applied sciences — aeronautical research coordination and health data work in pharmacovigilance and biobanking. Their more recent projects (2020-2022) shifted markedly toward humanities and green topics, with a major ERC grant in Ottoman history and an MSCA action on green energy awareness. This is less a strategic pivot and more a reflection of individual researchers winning grants across unrelated faculties.

Their trajectory reflects a broadening university with individual researchers securing EU grants independently rather than a coordinated institutional strategy — future collaborations should target specific faculty groups, not the institution as a whole.

How they like to work

IKCU has never coordinated an H2020 project, participating exclusively as a partner or third party. With 87 unique consortium partners across 27 countries from just 4 projects, they have joined large consortia (especially ConcePTION) rather than leading small focused teams. This suggests they are recruited for specific expertise contributions rather than driving project design.

Despite only 4 projects, IKCU has touched 87 partners in 27 countries — largely through participation in large coordination actions and the ConcePTION health ecosystem. Their network is broad but shallow, with no evidence of repeated partnerships.

What sets them apart

IKCU's standout asset is the ERC-funded JANET project, which places them among a small group of Turkish universities with ERC Starting Grants in humanities. For consortium builders, the university offers access to Turkish research infrastructure and a Mediterranean geographic perspective that is underrepresented in many EU consortia. However, their scattered thematic profile means partners should engage with specific research groups rather than expecting broad institutional capacity.

Highlights from their portfolio

• JANET
  An ERC Starting Grant — a competitive and prestigious award — studying Janissary networks in Ottoman port cities, representing IKCU's largest H2020 funding at EUR 210,711.
• ConcePTION
  A major EU health ecosystem project (running to 2024) on pregnancy medication safety, where IKCU contributes pharmacovigilance data as a third party within a very large consortium.