LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL

Their core work

London Business School is a world-leading graduate business school whose H2020 research focuses heavily on macroeconomics, financial systems, and political economy. Their faculty pursue fundamental research into how financial markets function, how monetary policy shapes economies, and how institutions drive inequality and development — particularly in African contexts. Beyond economics, they contribute applied expertise in business strategy, exploring questions like how language and metaphor shape corporate purpose and sustainability commitments.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early period (2015–2017), LBS combined core financial economics research with an applied contribution to energy-efficient building retrofit through NewTREND — a somewhat unusual pairing suggesting breadth beyond pure economics. From 2018 onward, the school shifted markedly toward social science themes: political economy of African development, the role of ethnicity and colonial history in institutions, and how language and metaphor shape corporate sustainability. This evolution reflects a broadening from technical financial modeling toward questions of institutional design, inequality, and corporate social responsibility.

LBS is moving from pure financial economics toward socially embedded research on institutions, inequality, and the role of language in shaping business behavior — expect future projects at the intersection of economics and social impact.

How they like to work

London Business School overwhelmingly leads its projects: 8 of 10 are as coordinator, almost all through prestigious ERC grants that fund individual principal investigators. This means they operate as autonomous research leaders rather than consortium team players. With only 21 unique partners across 8 countries and just 2 participant roles, they are selective collaborators — partners should expect LBS to drive the research agenda rather than slot into someone else's framework.

A compact network of 21 partners across 8 countries, consistent with their ERC-heavy portfolio where consortia are small or nonexistent. Their collaborative projects (NewTREND, FRAME) suggest connections to European energy and economics research groups, but the network is narrow by design.

What sets them apart

LBS stands out as a top-tier business school that uses ERC funding to pursue deep academic research in economics and political economy — not typical applied business research. Their rare combination of financial systems expertise with emerging work on African development and corporate purpose makes them distinctive among UK higher education institutions in H2020. For potential partners, LBS brings world-class economists and the credibility of a globally ranked institution, but they will almost certainly want to lead.

Highlights from their portfolio

• INFIMOP
  Largest single grant (EUR 1.83M ERC Consolidator) investigating international finance and monetary policy — represents the core of LBS's H2020 research identity.
• ORDINARY
  A bold ERC Advanced Grant (EUR 1.56M) tackling colonisation, ethnicity, and inequality in African political economy — signals a significant thematic expansion for a business school.
• METAPoF
  Unusually interdisciplinary for an economics department: examines how metaphor and language shape corporate sustainability and social responsibility.