COLLISON AND ASSOCIATES LIMITED

Their core work

Collison and Associates is a small UK agricultural consultancy based in Kings Lynn, Norfolk — a predominantly agricultural region — specialising in short food supply chains, local food innovation, and the facilitation of knowledge networks between farmers, producers, and innovation actors. Their H2020 participation was exclusively in Coordination and Support Actions (CSA), meaning their value is not in conducting research but in brokering connections, mobilising communities of practice, and translating agricultural knowledge into actionable innovation. They operate as a regional-to-European bridge, bringing on-the-ground agricultural network experience into multi-country EU projects. Both projects link them directly to the EIP-AGRI framework, suggesting established ties to European agricultural innovation partnerships.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both H2020 projects ran nearly concurrently (2016-2019 and 2017-2020), so there is no clear sequential evolution — rather a lateral expansion. Their first project, SKIN, was tightly focused on short supply chains and knowledge-driven agriculture within the EIP-AGRI framework. ENABLING introduced a biobased and bioeconomy dimension, suggesting they were broadening from pure food-chain facilitation toward rural bioeconomy innovation. Because ENABLING carries no searchable keywords in the dataset, the depth of that shift is hard to confirm.

If their trajectory held post-2020, they were moving from food chain knowledge brokerage toward broader rural bioeconomy facilitation — but with no projects after 2017 start dates and no Horizon Europe record visible, their current activity level is uncertain, particularly given the UK's post-Brexit eligibility changes.

How they like to work

Collison and Associates has never coordinated an EU project — they have joined two large consortia as a participant, consistently taking a partner role rather than a leadership one. Despite only two projects, they connected with 34 unique partners across 20 countries, which is a notably broad network for an organisation of this size, suggesting they were plugged into well-established EIP-AGRI and bioeconomy consortia rather than building their own. This profile is typical of a niche subject-matter contributor that consortium leaders recruit for their regional contacts or practitioner legitimacy.

Despite a minimal project portfolio of two, Collison and Associates has reached 34 unique consortium partners across 20 countries — a footprint that reflects the large, geographically dispersed nature of EIP-AGRI and bioeconomy networks they joined. Their geographic spread is pan-European, though their operational base remains firmly in the UK.

What sets them apart

Collison and Associates offers something that academic or research partners in the same consortia typically cannot: grounded, practitioner-level knowledge of short food supply chains in a UK agricultural context, combined with existing relationships within EIP-AGRI operational groups. For consortia building projects around local food systems, rural innovation, or bioeconomy, they bring credibility with farmers and local food actors that larger consultancies lack. However, UK-based organisations face eligibility restrictions under Horizon Europe since Brexit, which significantly limits their future consortium value unless the project is covered by a bilateral agreement.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ENABLING
  Largest funding received (EUR 206,688) and broadest scope — extending beyond food supply chains into biobased local innovation networks for economic growth.
• SKIN
  Most keyword-rich project revealing their core identity: short supply chain knowledge brokerage within the EIP-AGRI framework, demand-driven and knowledge-led.