Oxford Martin School

What are we doing?
The study of complex networks provides a new and powerful perspective on the spread of social and technological innovation, and the resilience of critical infrastructure in biological, financial, social, and engineered systems. By combining network approaches with methods like agent-based modelling, we seek to understand how such systems evolve dynamically, and respond to changing environments.

Why is it important?
Most of the systems that modern life is embedded in, and that we depend upon, are characterised by patterns of rich and often increasing interactions and interdependencies. As a result, understanding how such systems behave and how they might be modified is a major challenge. Our approach to tackling this challenge is to study different systems in a wide range of contexts, and to explore how and when models developed in one domain (e.g. ecosystems) can be translated to another (e.g.financial markets).

How are we different?
Our complex systems research is embedded in a larger collaborative network called CABDyN (www.cabdyn.ox.ac.uk) which brings together a truly multi-disciplinary group of researchers in more than ten University Departments in Oxford, ranging from the physical, biological and computational sciences to the social, economic and political sciences.