AEI - AGENTUR FUR EUROPAISCHE INTEGRATION UND WIRTSCHAFTLICHE ENTWICKLUNG GMBH

Their core work

AEI is a Vienna-based consultancy whose name — Agency for European Integration and Economic Development — signals their core role: bridging EU policy processes with practical implementation support. Their project track record places them at the intersection of public security and digital governance, contributing policy analysis, impact assessment, and stakeholder engagement expertise rather than core technical research. In TAKEDOWN they supported efforts to understand organised crime and terrorist network structures to inform effective security policy. In IMPULSE they shifted to digital public services, working on electronic identity management, blockchain-based verification, and AI-assisted biometric systems for government use. Their value to consortia is translating complex technical outputs into policy-relevant findings and managing the connection between EU institutions, public authorities, and research teams.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

AEI's first H2020 project placed them in the EU security and counter-terrorism research space, focused on understanding criminal network structures to inform policymakers — a societal and institutional role rather than a technical one. By their second project, starting in 2021, they had moved into digital governance and public service modernisation, with a dense cluster of keywords around electronic identity, blockchain, biometrics, and AI. The shift is clean: from analysing threats to society toward building the digital infrastructure that modern public administrations rely on. Both areas sit inside the EU policy sphere, suggesting AEI consistently positions itself as a connector between research outputs and government or institutional adoption.

AEI is moving toward digital public administration and e-government infrastructure, making them a relevant partner for any project involving eID frameworks, digital trust services, or blockchain-based government applications.

How they like to work

AEI has never led an H2020 project — both participations are as a consortium partner, which is consistent with a specialised consultancy brought in for a defined contribution rather than overall coordination. Despite only two projects, they have accumulated 35 unique partners across 17 countries, pointing to large international consortia rather than tight repeat partnerships. This breadth suggests they are recruited for specific expertise inputs — policy translation, impact assessment, stakeholder liaison — and integrate smoothly into multi-partner arrangements without needing to own the project agenda.

35 consortium partners across 17 countries from just two projects indicates AEI operates exclusively inside large, geographically diverse European research consortia. There is no evidence of a concentrated geographic focus — the spread reflects the pan-European nature of both security and digital identity policy research.

What sets them apart

AEI sits at an uncommon crossroads: a small Austrian consultancy with credible experience in both EU security policy research and digital public service modernisation. Most organisations in this space sit firmly in one camp; AEI's project history spans counter-terrorism network analysis and blockchain-based eID systems, which gives them a broader perspective on digital trust and public safety than a purely technical partner would offer. For consortia building projects where institutional uptake, policy alignment, or impact assessment across security and digital domains matter, AEI provides a compact, EU-oriented node without the overhead of a large research institute.

Highlights from their portfolio

• TAKEDOWN
  Largest single funding award (EUR 117,000) and AEI's entry into EU-funded research, covering the politically sensitive domain of organised crime and terrorist network analysis for security policy.
• IMPULSE
  Represents AEI's pivot to digital governance, with an unusually dense technology stack — blockchain, AI, biometrics, smart contracts — applied to public sector identity management, signalling ambition beyond pure policy advisory.