EPSRC "Scaling in Complex Systems" Grant

A 30-month research project on "Scaling in complex systems" has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), which will extend our understanding of the scaling properties of biological and social systems. The project, led by Professor Henrik Jensen of Imperial College and CABDyN’s co-director Felix Reed-Tsochas, will bring Professor Geoffrey West to the U.K. over the duration of the project for a series of short research visits and workshops. Professor West is President and Distinguished Professor at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico (USA) and he has a long track record of distinguished contributions to theoretical physics and biology.

His recent work, exploring how different properties of cities scale with size, has also received wide popular coverage, including Time magazine and the Harvard Business Review.

"The collaboration aims to help elucidate similarities and differences between the scaling properties of biological systems - for example, metabolism - and social systems - for example urban growth - and to provide the wider UK research community with access to one of the world's leading researchers on complex systems," explains Felix.

During this two and a half year period, CABDyN and Imperial College will be organising a series of seminars and workshops in Oxford and London focusing on two interrelated topics: (1) Evolutionary ecology and (2) Scaling in complex social systems and networks.

The launch of the research project was marked by a CABDyN Seminar by Geoffrey West on the topic of 'Size Matters: growth, innovation, economies of scale and the pace of life'.