QUEEN MARGARET UNIVERSITY, EDINBURGH

Their core work

Queen Margaret University is a Scottish university with strengths in health sciences, speech and language sciences, and community-focused social research. In H2020, they contribute expertise in public engagement around advanced therapies (gene and cell therapy communication), childhood play and socio-spatial inclusion, infectious disease research, and speech science. Their work bridges clinical health topics with public understanding, communication, and social impact — making them a distinctive partner where health meets community engagement.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

QMU's early H2020 work (2016–2020) centred on biomedical topics — infectious disease susceptibility, microbiome, antimicrobial resistance — alongside community-level research on children's play and inclusion. Their more recent projects (2021–2026) have shifted toward advanced therapy communication (gene therapy, cell therapy, clinical trials ethics) and fundamental speech science. The trajectory suggests a move from bench-adjacent health research toward public understanding of health and human communication sciences.

QMU is increasingly positioned at the intersection of health sciences and public communication, making them a strong fit for projects needing patient/public engagement components alongside scientific content.

How they like to work

QMU exclusively participates as a partner or third party — they have not coordinated any H2020 projects. With 75 unique consortium partners across 22 countries from just 4 projects, they operate in large, diverse consortia rather than leading small teams. This profile suggests a reliable specialist contributor that brings targeted expertise (communication, speech science, community research) into broad European collaborations.

Despite only 4 projects, QMU has built a wide network of 75 partners spanning 22 countries, indicating involvement in large pan-European consortia. Their reach is broad rather than concentrated in any single geographic cluster.

What sets them apart

QMU occupies a niche that larger Scottish universities often overlook: the space where health sciences meet public communication and community impact. Their combination of speech science expertise (backed by an ERC Advanced Grant) and health engagement work makes them an unusual partner who can handle both the science and the "how do we explain this to people" challenge. For consortia needing a responsible communication or public engagement work package, QMU brings focused experience without the overhead of a large research university.

Highlights from their portfolio

• P4PLAY
  QMU's largest funded project (EUR 606K), addressing children's play and socio-spatial inclusion across people, place, policy, and practice.
• PlanArt
  An ERC Advanced Grant project on speech planning and articulation — signals high-calibre research leadership in speech science hosted at QMU.
• EuroGCT
  A European-wide coordination action on communicating gene and cell therapy advances to patients and the public, placing QMU at the centre of advanced therapy engagement.