AIMES GRID SERVICES COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Their core work

AIMES is a Liverpool-based community interest company that provides secure cloud infrastructure and data management services, with a strong focus on health data protection and multi-cloud application deployment. They specialize in building privacy-compliant systems for sensitive data exchange — particularly in the healthcare sector — combining technical cloud expertise with domain knowledge in e-health, consent management, and secure storage. As a social enterprise (CIC), they bridge the gap between commercial IT services and public-interest technology needs.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

AIMES began with a dual focus on cloud security infrastructure (MUSA, 2015) and clinical data registries for inflammatory bowel disease (PIBD-SETQuality, 2016). By 2017, their work shifted clearly toward health data governance — privacy by design, consent management, and secure health data exchange (SHiELD) — while also branching into project management methodology (BeingL_S). The trajectory shows a move from general-purpose cloud services toward domain-specific applications in health data protection.

AIMES is converging toward health data infrastructure — organizations needing GDPR-compliant, privacy-by-design health data systems would find them a natural partner.

How they like to work

AIMES operates exclusively as a participant, never coordinating projects, which suggests they serve as a specialist technical contributor rather than a project driver. With 51 unique partners across 12 countries from just 5 projects, they work in large, diverse consortia — indicating comfort operating in complex international teams. Their consistent participant role across different domains (cloud, health, research methodology) points to an organization valued for its infrastructure and technical services rather than domain leadership.

AIMES has built a broad network of 51 partners across 12 countries through 5 projects, averaging over 10 partners per project. This wide reach across European countries, despite being a small CIC, suggests they are well-connected in both cloud computing and health informatics communities.

What sets them apart

AIMES occupies an unusual niche as a community interest company delivering enterprise-grade cloud and data security services — combining social enterprise values with deep technical capability in privacy-compliant infrastructure. Their crossover between general cloud security (multi-cloud deployment) and health-specific data governance (consent management, secure exchange) makes them particularly valuable for projects needing trusted, non-commercial infrastructure partners. Few organizations of their size and type can credibly bridge IT infrastructure provision with health data privacy requirements.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SHiELD
  Directly addresses the critical European challenge of secure health data exchange with privacy-by-design principles — highly relevant post-GDPR.
• MUSA
  Largest funding share (EUR 329,656) and their earliest H2020 project, establishing their credentials in multi-cloud security.
• PIBD-SETQuality
  Unusual combination — a cloud infrastructure company contributing to a paediatric inflammatory bowel disease clinical network, demonstrating their health data management capability.