SPRINGER NATURE LIMITED

Their core work

Springer Nature Limited (trading as Nature Publishing Group) is one of the world's largest scientific publishers, home to journals including Nature, Scientific Reports, and over 2,000 specialist titles across every scientific discipline. In H2020 projects, they contribute as a dissemination and science communication specialist rather than as a primary research institution. Their funded participation in GlobalSCAPE — a study of how science is communicated and perceived globally — reflects direct alignment between their commercial mission and formal research activity. In ZENITH, a large MSCA training network for zebrafish neuroscience, they served as a publishing and outreach partner lending dissemination infrastructure to the consortium.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Springer Nature's two H2020 projects span 2019 to 2023 and show a clear shift from passive infrastructure partner to active research participant. Their early involvement in ZENITH (2019) was as a third-party partner in a neuroscience training network, contributing publishing reach rather than scientific content. By 2021, GlobalSCAPE saw them take a funded participant role conducting original research on science communication using diary study methodology — a more engaged, evidence-generating position. The trajectory points toward Springer Nature positioning itself as a credible research actor in the science-society field, not merely a dissemination channel for others' work.

Springer Nature is moving from being a passive publishing outlet toward actively researching how science is communicated and perceived, making them an increasingly substantive partner for projects where public engagement, open science, or the science-society interface is a core deliverable.

How they like to work

Springer Nature has not led any H2020 projects as coordinator, consistently joining as partner or participant. Despite only two projects, they connected with 26 consortium partners across 10 countries, indicating they tend to join well-networked, multi-partner consortia rather than small bilateral arrangements. This pattern suggests they are sought as a dissemination asset by project coordinators who need publishing reach, rather than driving the scientific direction themselves.

Two projects brought Springer Nature into contact with 26 unique consortium partners across 10 countries — a broad network relative to their project count. No geographic concentration is apparent, consistent with their global publishing footprint and the international character of both ZENITH and GlobalSCAPE.

What sets them apart

Among the very few commercial scientific publishers to appear in H2020 consortia, Springer Nature brings something almost no academic or research partner can replicate: direct access to the world's most-read scientific journals and a global science communication infrastructure built over more than 175 years. For any project that requires credible, large-scale dissemination or wants to study science-society communication, they are a rare and high-visibility asset. Their participation in GlobalSCAPE also demonstrates that they can contribute to social science research design, not merely publish its outputs.

Highlights from their portfolio

• GlobalSCAPE
  The only project where Springer Nature received EC funding (EUR 155,312) and acted as a funded research participant, studying global science communication and public perception through diary methods — directly intersecting their commercial publishing mission with academic inquiry.
• ZENITH
  A large MSCA Innovative Training Network (2019–2024) on zebrafish neuroscience that enlisted Springer Nature as a third-party partner, illustrating their role as a dissemination resource sought by major multi-country training consortia.