ADICONSUM ASSOCIAZIONE DIFESA CONSUMATORI APS

Their core work

ADICONSUM is one of Italy's major consumer protection associations, headquartered in Rome. In EU research projects, they bring the end-user and consumer perspective — representing household needs in energy policy, advocating for vulnerable consumers facing energy poverty, and ensuring food safety innovations align with real consumer expectations. Their role is to bridge the gap between technical research outputs and the people who will actually use, buy, or be affected by those innovations.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

ADICONSUM began its H2020 participation in 2015 with a clear energy-consumer focus: promoting sustainable behaviour through natural language tools (NATCONSUMERS) and addressing energy poverty (STEP-IN). By 2019, they expanded into food and agriculture with SHEALTHY, applying their consumer representation expertise to non-thermal food preservation technologies — a significant sector jump. This suggests a deliberate broadening from energy-only consumer advocacy toward a wider consumer-protection-in-research role.

ADICONSUM is moving from energy-specific consumer advocacy toward becoming a general consumer voice in food safety and health-related research projects.

How they like to work

ADICONSUM always participates as a consortium partner, never as coordinator — consistent with their role as an advocacy organization contributing a specific perspective rather than leading technical research. With 44 unique partners across just 3 projects, they work in large, diverse consortia (averaging ~15 partners per project). This makes them a connector organization that is comfortable operating within large multi-country teams and engaging with both technical and policy-oriented partners.

Despite only 3 projects, ADICONSUM has built a network spanning 44 unique partners across 14 countries — a wide European footprint reflecting their participation in large consortia. Their network is predominantly EU-wide with no single geographic cluster beyond their Italian base.

What sets them apart

ADICONSUM brings something most technical consortia lack: a credible, organized consumer voice with real membership and advocacy infrastructure in Italy. For any project that needs to demonstrate societal impact, test consumer acceptance, or engage households in pilots, they provide legitimacy and reach that a university or SME cannot replicate. They are particularly valuable for projects requiring dissemination to non-expert audiences or policy input from the consumer side.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SHEALTHY
  Largest funding (EUR 157,775) and a sector departure — marks ADICONSUM's first food-tech project involving advanced preservation technologies like plasma-activated water and pulsed electric fields.
• NATCONSUMERS
  Their first H2020 project and largest single grant (EUR 194,500), focused on using natural language processing to promote sustainable energy behaviour among consumers.
• STEP-IN
  Directly addresses energy poverty — a high-priority EU social policy area — through living labs targeting vulnerable individuals.