Clecat - European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Service

Their core work

CLECAT is a Brussels-based European trade association representing freight forwarders, customs agents, transport operators, and logistics service providers at EU level. Their core work is policy advocacy, industry standard-setting, and translating regulatory developments into practical guidance for their membership across Europe. In H2020 research consortia, they serve as an industry voice that grounds research in operational reality — bringing knowledge of how freight actually moves, what regulations apply, and what the industry will or will not adopt. Their participation in transport projects reflects their role as a connector between EU institutions, research teams, and the broader logistics services sector.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

All of CLECAT's H2020 activity is concentrated in a single window — both projects started in 2016 and ran to 2019 — making it impossible to trace a genuine evolution of focus from this dataset alone. The two projects together cover both digital infrastructure (SELIS) and environmental accountability (LEARN), suggesting that even in their limited participation, they engaged with the two dominant pressures reshaping European logistics at that time: digitisation and decarbonisation. Without any subsequent H2020 involvement, no further trajectory can be reliably identified from this data.

With only two projects from a single year cohort and no subsequent H2020 activity, no directional trend can be confidently established — but their simultaneous presence in both a digital logistics RIA and an emissions CSA suggests they track EU transport policy priorities closely and would likely engage in green freight or freight data initiatives if approached.

How they like to work

CLECAT has never coordinated an H2020 project, always joining as a participant — consistent with how European trade associations typically operate in research: as industry representatives and dissemination channels rather than technical leads. Despite only two projects, they accumulated 53 unique partners across 16 countries, which means they entered large, complex consortia. This pattern suggests they are brought in to provide industry legitimacy, policy access, and outreach to a broad membership base rather than to run work packages.

Through just two projects, CLECAT connected with 53 unique consortium partners spanning 16 countries — a dense network relative to their project count, reflecting participation in large pan-European transport consortia. Their Brussels base and EU-level mandate mean their operational network extends well beyond the H2020 footprint into EU institutions, national forwarding associations, and logistics industry bodies across Europe.

What sets them apart

CLECAT is one of very few organisations that formally represents the freight forwarding, customs, and logistics services industry across Europe at the EU institutional level, giving them direct access to policy processes that no single company or research institute can replicate. For a research consortium, they provide a channel into a membership of hundreds of logistics operators across EU member states — a dissemination and validation asset that is hard to substitute. Their Brussels positioning also makes them a natural bridge for projects that need to translate research outputs into regulatory or standards processes.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SELIS
  Largest EC contribution (EUR 110,000) in a Research and Innovation Action targeting digital integration across European logistics networks — a flagship ambition for the sector.
• LEARN
  Coordinating Action focused on emission accounting and reduction in logistics, directly relevant to the EU's freight decarbonisation agenda and subsequent regulatory developments like the EU ETS extension to shipping.