BURSON COHN & WOLFE

Their core work

Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW) is a professional communications and public relations firm that contributes specialist communication, dissemination, and public engagement expertise to EU research consortia. In H2020, they have served as the communications partner bringing research outcomes to broader audiences — whether designing innovation challenge prizes to stimulate entrepreneurship or running engagement and impact campaigns for waterborne transport research. Their real-world business is strategic communications: crafting narratives, managing outreach campaigns, and connecting technical research communities with policymakers, industry, and the general public. They are not a research organization — they are the communications engine that helps research projects achieve visibility and societal uptake.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 work (2015-2016), BCW focused on the design of innovation incentive mechanisms — specifically challenge prizes intended to drive ICT entrepreneurship and address societal challenges, a niche communications-meets-policy-design role. By 2021-2024, the emphasis shifted clearly toward large-scale research dissemination and community engagement, with BCW embedded in a multi-year waterborne transport programme tasked with broadening participation and amplifying research impact. The trajectory shows a move from prize-design consulting toward sustained, campaign-style research communication, with much larger budgets to match.

BCW is consolidating around long-term, high-budget dissemination and engagement contracts in technical research sectors, suggesting they are positioning themselves as the go-to communications partner for research consortia that need professional public outreach rather than academic dissemination.

How they like to work

BCW participates exclusively as a consortium partner and has never coordinated an H2020 project, which is consistent with their role as a specialist service provider rather than a research lead. Their consortium footprint is small — 8 unique partners across 6 countries in just 2 projects — indicating they join focused, purpose-built consortia where their communications function is well-defined. Working with BCW means bringing in a dedicated communications and public engagement resource; they are unlikely to drive the scientific agenda but will own the outreach workstream.

BCW has worked with 8 unique partners across 6 countries, a relatively narrow network given only two projects. Their Brussels base gives them natural access to EU institutions and policy circles, which is likely more valuable than their formal consortium network.

What sets them apart

BCW brings professional-grade PR and strategic communications capability that most research consortia entirely lack — the ability to translate technical findings into narratives that resonate with industry, media, and policymakers. Unlike academic dissemination partners or university press offices, BCW operates as a commercial agency with established media relationships and campaign experience. For consortia targeting real-world adoption or policy influence, BCW fills a gap that no research institution can credibly fill internally.

Highlights from their portfolio

• LASTING
  The largest project by far at €522K EC funding, LASTING gave BCW a sustained 3-year mandate to drive engagement for the entire waterborne transport research community — a rare, high-visibility communications role in a capital-intensive sector.
• ICTIP
  A small but distinctive project where BCW designed inducement prize mechanisms for ICT innovation — an unusual intersection of communications expertise and innovation policy instrument design.