MODUL UNIVERSITY VIENNA GMBH

Their core work

Modul University Vienna is a private university in Vienna specializing in applied research at the intersection of sustainability, tourism, and complex systems science. Their H2020 work spans three distinct domains: connectivity science and network theory applied to environmental and industrial systems, sustainable cultural tourism development using participatory methods and decision support tools, and land use change research focused on indigenous communities and tropical deforestation. They bring interdisciplinary social science and sustainability expertise to European research consortia.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

With only three projects spanning 2016–2024, evolution is modest but visible. Their earliest involvement (INCLUDE, 2016) focused on global development themes — land use and deforestation in tropical regions with indigenous communities. By 2019–2020, they shifted toward European-focused, technically richer work: complex network science applied to ecological and industrial systems (i-CONN) and data-driven sustainable tourism (SmartCulTour). The trajectory suggests a move from observational social research toward quantitative systems modeling and decision support tools.

MU is moving toward quantitative systems approaches (network science, decision support, impact modeling) applied to sustainability and regional development — expect future work combining these methods.

How they like to work

Modul University participates exclusively as a partner — they have not coordinated any H2020 projects. With 21 unique partners across 13 countries from just 3 projects, they join relatively large, geographically diverse consortia. This profile suggests they contribute specialized expertise to broader teams rather than driving project design, making them a reliable and flexible consortium member.

Despite only three projects, MU has built connections with 21 partners across 13 countries, indicating participation in broad European consortia. Their network is geographically dispersed rather than concentrated in any single region.

What sets them apart

Modul University bridges tourism studies — their institutional strength as a hospitality and tourism-focused university — with harder quantitative disciplines like network science and ecological economics. This interdisciplinary mix is uncommon: few tourism-oriented institutions bring graph theory and industrial ecology expertise to the table. For consortium builders, they offer a rare combination of social science depth with systems-level analytical capability, particularly useful in projects needing both community engagement methods and quantitative impact assessment.

Highlights from their portfolio

• i-CONN
  An ERC Consolidator Grant — the most prestigious individual funding scheme in H2020 — applying connectivity science across ecological, economic, and industrial systems.
• SmartCulTour
  Directly combines MU's tourism expertise with participatory tools (living labs, serious games) and decision support systems for European regional development.