Coventry University has a long tradition of undertaking training, applied research and consultancy to meet the needs of local, national and international clients in the pubic and private sector. Coventry University Enterprises, a subsidiary of Coventry University Higher Education Corporation, is the organisation through which the University runs much of its commercial, income-generating and business-partnership work. The Serious Games Institute is a new initiative designed to support regional development and to create a national hub for excellence in the fields of serious games, virtual world applications and interactive digital media. Located in the Innovation Village, the Institute includes an applied research team that works closely with companies who are leading experts in the field. The SGI has already commenced world leading projects in the field including the Save the World Programme, the Second Life Science City Project and Interactive Digital Media funded Serious Games Exposed project.

As a world leader in the field of serious games and virtual world applications, the applied research group is adopting multi-disciplinary methods and approaches underpinning both participatory design methods as well as exploiting inductive (or multiple methodologies) of investigation. The CU team, led by Dr. Sara de Freitas, includes psychologists, educationalists, developers and social scientists and make use of a range of methodologies of investigation. CU will contribute as content and technical provider to the mEducator project.