Belgian business school specialising in co-design methodology, human factors in product development, and open innovation for industrial consortia.
Antwerp Management School is a Belgian business school that brings management science and human-centred design expertise into EU research consortia. Their documented H2020 work covers the intersection of digital technology and organisational behaviour — specifically how companies and users co-create products using emerging tools like spatial augmented reality. They contribute research on customer involvement, design creativity, and collaborative work processes, translating technical prototypes into business-relevant insights. In later projects they moved toward transport innovation networks, likely contributing their competence in open innovation and organisational change management.
SPARK (2016–2018) positioned AMS as a specialist in co-creative design processes, customer involvement, and human behaviour during design — the core intellectual contribution of the project.
SPARK directly investigated spatial augmented reality as a medium for computer-supported collaborative work and bridging digital and physical prototypes.
PIONEERS (2021–2026) — focused on portable innovation networks for emissions and efficiency reduction — suggests AMS is extending its remit into transport-sector open innovation.
Across both projects, AMS's role appears to be grounding technical research in business and organisational reality — from AR-based design tools to portable innovation solutions for industry.
In their first H2020 project (SPARK, 2016–2018), AMS was firmly anchored in digital design research: spatial augmented reality, co-design methodology, customer involvement, and the human side of collaborative product development. Their second project (PIONEERS, 2021–2026) marks a clear sector pivot toward transport efficiency and emissions reduction, with no keyword overlap with the earlier work. This shift suggests AMS is positioning itself as a management and open-innovation partner across multiple industrial sectors, rather than remaining narrowly focused on digital design tools.
AMS appears to be broadening its EU research portfolio from digital-design specialisation toward industrial sustainability and open innovation, which may indicate an ambition to become a management-science partner in green-transition projects.
AMS has participated exclusively as a consortium partner — never as project coordinator — across both H2020 projects, indicating a preference for contributing specialist expertise rather than leading project management. Despite a small project count, they have engaged with 69 unique partners across 14 countries, which is unusually broad for just two projects and suggests they joined large, multi-partner consortia. This profile is consistent with a business school that adds value as a research and methodology partner rather than a technical coordinator.
AMS has built a surprisingly wide network for an organisation with only two H2020 projects — 69 unique partners across 14 countries. This reach is almost entirely attributable to participation in large consortia rather than repeated bilateral partnerships.
Antwerp Management School occupies a rare niche in EU research: a business school that genuinely engages in applied technology projects rather than limiting itself to social-science or policy work. Their documented expertise in customer-centred design and collaborative work gives them a credible bridge role between technical partners and end-user or business integration needs. For consortium builders, AMS can serve as the "business and human factors" anchor that reviewers often look for in technology-heavy proposals.
