AUGEAS ASSOCIAZIONE DI SPORT PROMOZIONE E TURISMO

Their core work

Augeas is an Italian non-profit association based near Rome whose core mandate covers sport promotion, health-oriented recreation, and tourism. In H2020, they participated as a non-academic partner in MSCA-RISE staff-exchange projects, contributing a practitioner perspective on wellness, active lifestyles, and health tourism to research consortia otherwise dominated by universities and hospitals. Their role in these projects is characteristic of MSCA-RISE's requirement to include civil-society or industry bodies that can translate scientific findings toward real-world settings. The pairing of their tourism/sport background with projects on green microenvironments and cancer immunotherapy suggests they serve as a bridge between organized leisure and preventive or rehabilitative health outcomes.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their first project, CHARMED, connected naturally to the association's founding mission — examining how natural, green environments promote health and well-being, a clear extension of health tourism and outdoor sport. The second project, CANCER, marked a notable shift into clinical territory: personalised immunotherapy and postoperative outcomes are far removed from leisure and environment. The trajectory suggests the organisation is being drawn progressively deeper into biomedical research consortia, possibly because funders value civil-society voices on patient quality of life, rather than because Augeas has developed independent clinical expertise.

They appear to be migrating from preventive wellness topics toward clinical and oncological research, which could position them as a patient-advocacy or civil-society voice in future health-focused MSCA consortia — provided they continue building relationships in that network.

How they like to work

Augeas has never led an H2020 project; both participations were as a consortium member in MSCA-RISE, a scheme explicitly designed for staff exchanges between academic and non-academic partners. Their consortium exposure is substantial for their size — 29 unique partners across 7 countries across just two projects — indicating they enter well-connected, multi-institutional networks rather than small bilateral arrangements. This suggests they are comfortable in large consortia but in a supporting, non-coordinating capacity.

Despite only two projects, Augeas has accumulated 29 unique consortium partners spanning 7 countries, a relatively broad footprint for an association of this type. Their network is European in scope, built entirely through MSCA-RISE exchanges rather than through research leadership.

What sets them apart

Augeas occupies an unusual niche: a sport-and-tourism association that has established a foothold in health research consortia, specifically where the human, lifestyle, or environmental angle is needed alongside hard science. For a consortium seeking a non-academic Italian civil-society partner with MSCA-RISE experience — particularly on topics linking environment, active living, or patient quality of life — they are a relatively rare fit. However, with only two projects and no coordinatorship, their track record is thin and a prospective partner should assess the depth of their actual staff-exchange contribution before committing.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CHARMED
  Directly bridges the organisation's core identity (outdoor environment, tourism, wellness) with academic research on green microenvironments and aging, making it the most authentic expression of their dual mission.
• CANCER
  Signals a significant thematic leap into personalised oncology and immunotherapy, showing willingness to engage well beyond the organisation's original sport-tourism remit.