ARCADIA INTERNATIONAL GEIE

Their core work

Arcadia International is a Belgian consultancy organized as a European Economic Interest Grouping (GEIE), specializing in agricultural sustainability, seed diversity management, and plant variety evaluation. They work at the intersection of plant breeding policy, bio-based agricultural inputs, and variety testing systems across Europe. Their practical focus is on connecting examination offices, breeders, and farmers through improved testing methodologies and sustainable agronomic practices.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Arcadia's H2020 journey began in 2017 with a coordination role in seed diversity management (DYNAVERSITY), reflecting an early focus on agricultural biodiversity policy and seed network governance. By 2019, their participation expanded into two applied projects — bio-based fertilizers (B-FERST) and advanced plant variety testing (INVITE) — signaling a shift from policy-oriented seed diversity work toward more technical, product-oriented agricultural innovation including industrial upscaling and business planning for bio-based inputs.

Arcadia is moving from agricultural policy coordination toward applied, market-oriented work in bio-based products and advanced crop evaluation, making them increasingly relevant for commercialization-focused consortia.

How they like to work

Arcadia operates as both a coordinator (DYNAVERSITY) and a contributing partner, showing comfort in either role. With 66 unique consortium partners across just 3 projects, they engage in large, multi-actor consortia rather than small focused teams. Their GEIE legal structure — a European Economic Interest Grouping — is itself designed for cross-border collaboration, suggesting that network-building and multi-country coordination are embedded in their organizational DNA.

Arcadia has built a broad European network of 66 unique partners across 17 countries through just 3 projects, indicating they consistently join large, geographically diverse consortia in the agricultural sector.

What sets them apart

Arcadia's GEIE structure makes them unusual among H2020 participants — they are purpose-built for transnational collaboration, which is rare among SMEs. Their combination of seed diversity governance experience with applied bio-based product development gives them a dual perspective spanning policy and market. For consortium builders, they offer a partner who understands both the regulatory landscape of plant variety testing and the commercial realities of bringing bio-based products to farmers.

Highlights from their portfolio

• DYNAVERSITY
  Their only coordination role, focused on dynamic seed networks for managing European crop diversity — the largest single EC contribution (EUR 443,750) in their portfolio.
• INVITE
  A technically ambitious project combining phenotyping tools, genetic markers, and epigenetics to modernize how plant varieties are tested and approved across European examination offices.
• B-FERST
  Bridges agricultural sustainability with industrial scale-up, covering the full chain from bio-based fertilizer development to logistics and business planning.