6 November 2025
Why do crowds wait patiently - and when does the mood change? How is it that queues can suddenly break down and turn into a crush? Researchers from Forschungszentrum Jülich and the University of Groningen seek to find the answers to these and similar questions in the CrowdING project, which has now been awarded one of the prestigious Synergy Grants by the European Research Council (ERC).
The ERC is providing around € 9.4 million in funding to an interdisciplinary and international research project that aims to better understand and predict crowd behaviour. The Synergy Grant is awarded exclusively to research groups whose combined expertise is crucial to solving particularly complex scientific questions.
Three research groups will collaborate in the CrowdING project. Prof. Dr. Anna Sieben and Prof. Dr. Armin Seyfried each lead a group at the Institute for Advanced Simulation - Civil Safety Research (IAS-7) at Forschungszentrum Jülich, while Prof. Dr. Tom Postmes and his team conduct research at the University of Groningen.
From calm to impatient - researchers investigate what sets crowds in motion
"We want to understand and predict why people behave in certain ways in large gatherings - for example, running, waiting, forming a queue, or pushing," says psychologist Anna Sieben. The research team also wants to find out why and when people change their behaviour - such as when a calmly waiting crowd suddenly becomes impatient and starts pushing. These changes in behaviour often occur unexpectedly, whether at concerts, stadiums, or train stations. "We know that both physical and social-psychological factors play a role. In the CrowdING project, we want to systematically investigate how physical parameters and human behaviour are linked," adds physicist Armin Seyfried.
To this end, experts from the fields of social psychology, physics, and computer science are working closely together. In the first few months, the focus will be on developing common methods to ensure that all the disciplines speak the "same language". In summer 2026, the team plans to conduct initial exploratory experiments to investigate fundamental behavioural patterns in controlled situations. Large-scale studies with several hundred participants are planned for the third year of the project.
Social relevance: simulations for research and practice
All findings will be incorporated into an agent-based computer model designed to realistically simulate crowd behaviour. This model is the central goal of the project. Such models are not only intended to provide scientific insights, but also to enable practical applications - such as planning large-scale events, managing train stations, and designing public spaces. The results can also help to make infrastructure more people-friendly, for example by improving the organization of access points, escape routes, or waiting areas.
In addition to the three project managers, an international team of researchers is being assembled - two groups at Jülich and one at the University of Groningen. The project issupported by an advisory board of international experts. The two Jülich project managers, Anna Sieben and Armin Seyfried, also teach at the University of Wuppertal, where the doctoral researchers of the CrowdING project are pursuing their doctorates.
The ERC Synergy Grant is one of Europe's most prestigious scientific awards. It promotes groundbreaking, interdisciplinary research that can only be achieved as part of a team. The total funding volume of €9,379,840 million will be used primarily to cover personnel and experimental costs. Forschungszentrum Jülich received its first Synergy Grant in 2020 - this is now the fifth.
