Home>Sciences Po Selected as Part of Three Major European Research Hubs in 2026
27 February 2026
Sciences Po Selected as Part of Three Major European Research Hubs in 2026
In 2026, our European university alliance CIVICA is launching four Research Hubs. Led by faculty members, each Hub brings together research teams from across the 10 members of the alliance, combining expertise from different disciplines and perspectives. The Hubs are designed to act as connecting points within a wider European research network. Through workshops, conferences and collaborative events, they draw in scholars from across the alliance and beyond.
Their purpose is to support seed research and lay the groundwork for larger, externally funded research projects in the future. They will all benefit from an 18-month seed funding support.
Sciences Po's researchers are part of three of the four projects that were selected among a dozen projects.
SEPO, Mapping the impact of AI and social media on European democracy
Digital platforms are reshaping European democracies. Social media and AI influences how people access information, form opinions, and interact with others online. These technologies affect political debates, voting behaviour, and public engagement in ways that are often complex and interconnected. Understanding these dynamics requires new research methods that combine social science, data science, and computational approaches, bringing together insights from multiple disciplines to study how digital ecosystems influence society.
Scaling the European Polarisation Observatory (SEPO) is the flagship project of the European Polarisation Observatory (EPO), one of the first CIVICA Research Hubs. Running from January 2026 to June 2027, it is investigating how social media and AI shape political attitudes, social polarisation, and public debates across Europe. Building on the infrastructure of the European Polarisation Observatory, SEPO provides a collaborative platform for researchers, students, and policymakers to share data, methods, and findings.
SEPO brings together researchers from six CIVICA universities, including Sciences Po, Bocconi University, the Hertie School, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Școala Națională de Studii Politice și Administrative (SNSPA), and Central European University (CEU). This interdisciplinary team combines expertise in political science, sociology, computational social science, and AI research.
« The European Polarisation Observatory (EPO) was created thanks to CIVICA funding in 2021, as an initiative to study phenomena at the crossing of public opinion, AI, and social media, revisiting platform studies with political frameworks adapted for European settings. Now recognised as a CIVICA Hub, the European Polarisation Observatory (currently funded by the SEPO grant) is a pivotal point and emergent infrastructure for the collection, treatment, and sharing of large-scale data for social sciences studies of digital environments and technologies such as AI systems. EPO acts as a data mutualisation system, covering social media and web data, and data relevant for the study of AI systems such as recommender systems or conversational agents. »
Pedro Ramaciotti Morales
Associate Member of Sciences Po médialab
GROUPID, Investigating the rise of identity politics in Europe
European democracies are facing growing political division. Across the continent, public debate is increasingly shaped by racial, ethnic, religious, and national identities –not only for minorities, but also among members of majority populations who feel economically and socially left behind. These shifts are challenging long-standing liberal democratic norms and reshaping political competition in Europe.
Understanding why this is happening, and what it means for Europe’s democratic future, requires strong European social sciences, deeper higher education cooperation in Europe, and close collaboration across disciplines. This is the focus of Group Identity Politics and the End of the Liberal Consensus (GROUPID), a CIVICA Research Hub running from January 2026 to June 2027. Combining interdisciplinary academic research in political science, illiberal ideology, sociology, and political economy, this Hub studies how economic pressures, social status change, and inequality influence group identities and political attitudes across Europe.
GROUPID brings together leading researchers from five CIVICA universities, including Central European University (CEU), Sciences Po, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), IE University, and the Hertie School. The team combines expertise in political behaviour, identity politics, political economy, and advanced survey and experimental methods.
« The initiative will launch a pilot project centred on a large-scale survey and embedded survey experiment in France and Germany, aiming to explore the economic and status determinants of identity politics and their consequences for political attitudes and voting behaviour. The seed funding will support the establishment of a panel survey designed to track within-respondent changes in identity salience, economic perceptions, and political outcomes over time, ensuring statistical robustness for future research expansions. By focusing on the interplay between ethnic, class, and group identities, the project intends to lay the empirical groundwork for broader investigations into identity formation and its implications for democratic resilience. »
Jan Rovny
Full Professor at Sciences Po's Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics and Sciences Po's Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies
DigiAfrica, A transcontinental platform on Africa’s digital transformation
Africa’s digital transformation is moving fast. Mobile services, digital trade, data centres, and online public services are becoming an everyday part of life across the continent. This transformation is not just about technology, it is also political, economic, legal, and historical. Decisions about infrastructure, regulation, and global partnerships shape who controls value, power, and resources in Africa’s digital future.
Infrastructure, Critical Minerals, and Transnational Governance in Africa’s Digital Transition (DigiAfrica) is running from February 2026 to June 2027 and combines expertise from the social sciences to explore the broader societal and policy implications of digitalisation and to guide real-world policy choices.
It brings together researchers from four CIVICA universities: Sciences Po, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Bocconi University, and the European University Institute (EUI). The hub also involves African research and policy institutions, including the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the International Growth Centre (IGC), and Wits University.
« DigiAfrica studies who finances, builds, and regulates the infrastructure that underpins Africa’s digital transition—from fibre-optic cables and data centres to the extraction and processing of critical minerals such as cobalt and lithium. We examine how legal rules, trade agreements, and investment models shape the distribution of profits, risks, and technological learning between African states and external partners. By bringing together scholars from law, economics, political science, and anthropology, the project aims to provide practical insights into how digital infrastructure can support industrial upgrading and more balanced partnerships. »
Gustav Kalm
Assistant Professor at Sciences Po Law School's Research Center
Last but least, the fourth CIVICA Research Hub, Researching Integration Pathways, Transconnectivity and Policy Innovation in Multilevel Migration Governance (TRANSCONNECT), focuses on migration and integration governance in Europe, with a particular emphasis on Ukrainian forced migration since 2022, bringing together researchers from seven other CIVICA universities.
Open house days 2026
Virtual Undergraduate Open House day 2026
Come meet our teams and students at our campuses.
Virtual Graduate Open House day 2026
Meet faculty members, students and representatives and learn more about our 30 Master's programmes.