Stakeholder engagement, co-creation and user needs
Stakeholder mapping, user engagement, co-creation activities, workshops, interviews, surveys and structured feedback loops.
Horizon Europe
From research results to proven impact.
CATALYST R&I works within Horizon Europe consortia to carry innovation the whole distance — from an initial concept, through validation under real conditions, to adoption at scale.
The gap between a promising research result and a solution people actually use is where most projects lose their value. CATALYST R&I exists to close that gap, grounding solutions in real user needs, testing them in operational conditions, and building the exploitation and uptake pathways that carry results into the market, into policy, or into everyday practice once funding ends.
Approach
The journey CATALYST R&I supports
From need to concept
Establishing what users and adopters actually require, and shaping a solution around that evidence.
From concept to validated solution
Proving the solution works outside the laboratory, under real operating conditions.
From validated solution to adoption
Building the route to continued use once the funding ends.
Delivery that holds it together
None of it survives contact with a real project without delivery discipline running underneath: planning, tracking, governance, and reporting to the European Commission. What that involves in practice is set out below.
Readiness
Where this sits on the TRL scale
Horizon Europe measures maturity on nine readiness levels, and every proposal commits to a start and an end point on that scale. The work described above runs across the whole of it — and then past the end of it.
1Basic principles observed
2Technology concept formulated
3Experimental proof of concept
4Validated in the laboratory
5Validated in a relevant environment
6Demonstrated in a relevant environment
7Prototype in an operational environment
8System complete and qualified
9Proven in an operational environment
No TRL
Market entry, policy uptake, continued use. The scale stops
here; the work does not.
From need to concept
From concept to validated solution
From validated solution to adoption
Scroll the scale sideways →
TRL 9 means a system has been proven in an operational environment. It does not mean anyone has adopted it. Between a qualified technology and a technology in use lies the exploitation, market and policy work the scale was never designed to measure — and that is precisely where projects stop.
In projects
Contribution to projects
Real-world validation and pilot support
Operational support to demonstration and pilot activities, validation under real conditions, adoption-readiness assessment and training.
Exploitation, sustainability and uptake
Identification of exploitable results, mapping of target users and adopters, assessment of market and policy opportunities, design of sustainability models, and preparation of go-to-market or uptake roadmaps.
Dissemination, communication and clustering
Planning and execution of dissemination and communication activities, engagement with European networks and stakeholder platforms, and clustering with sister projects and programme-level platforms.
Project and consortium management
Work package leadership, master delivery plans, milestone and deliverable tracking, risk mitigation, consortium governance, and representation in dealings with EU project officers.
Requirements definition and technical liaison
Interface between consortium partners and technical development teams, translating user requirements and Grant Agreement commitments into technical specifications.
Where
Domains
Clean energy and building decarbonisation
Smart building energy management, electrification, building-to-grid flexibility, district heating, and the digital systems controlling them.
Climate-neutral and smart cities
City-level implementation and assessment, including alignment with Climate City Contracts and Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans.
Circular economy and bioeconomy
Circular transition for SMEs, digitisation of circular value chains, and delivery of cluster and accelerator programmes.
Digital innovation, AI and environmental intelligence
Predictive analytics, Earth Observation, IoT sensing and decision-support systems, including requirements definition and coordination with development teams.
Engagements
Services
Proposal development
Topic analysis, concept framing, consortium assembly, technical and impact writing, budget construction and negotiation, and submission management. Engagements range from the development of a complete proposal, comprising both Part A and Part B, to targeted intervention on an existing draft in order to strengthen sections that are underperforming against the evaluation criteria.
Funding strategy and positioning
Advice on programme selection, call timing and whether to assume a coordinating or partner role. Services include the construction and maintenance of funding pipelines, monitoring of evolving EU policy priorities, and positioning of an organisation's capabilities in relation to current programme direction.
Consortium building and partner search
Identification and approach of the partner profiles a given topic requires, including cities, utilities, research centres, industry and civil society organisations, together with the associated negotiation of roles and budget allocations. This service draws on twenty years of participation in European networks and brokerage events.
Embedded delivery support
Taken on as a role inside the consortium rather than as an external service: work package leadership, or the management function carried on behalf of the coordinator. The scope of the role is set out under contribution to projects.
Get in touch
Contact
Enquiries about proposals in preparation, partner searches, or support to a running project are welcome at any stage of the call cycle.