CROWDHELIX LIMITED

Their core work

Crowdhelix is an Irish innovation network platform that connects researchers, businesses, and funding bodies across diverse scientific domains. Rather than providing deep technical expertise in any single field, they serve as a cross-sector networking and engagement partner within EU consortia, facilitating knowledge exchange, dissemination, and community building. Their participation across radically different topics — from VR rehabilitation to aquaculture to critical raw materials — indicates their value lies in open innovation infrastructure and stakeholder engagement rather than domain-specific R&D. They help projects reach wider audiences and build communities around research outcomes.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Crowdhelix entered H2020 in 2019 with projects in digital health (VR rehabilitation, vascular dementia MRI) and industrial energy (solar thermal processes). By 2021, their portfolio shifted decisively toward environmental topics — nature-based solutions, critical raw materials recovery, ecosystem resilience — alongside continued health and emerging citizen science themes. The broadening pattern suggests growing demand for their networking services across more sectors rather than a deliberate technical pivot.

Crowdhelix is expanding into green transition and environmental justice topics, making them a relevant networking partner for climate, circular economy, and nature-based solution consortia in Horizon Europe.

How they like to work

Crowdhelix operates exclusively as a participant — they have never coordinated an H2020 project. With 181 unique partners across 35 countries from just 12 projects, they function as a high-connectivity hub, rarely overlapping partners between consortia. This pattern is typical of network platform organizations whose value proposition is precisely their ability to bridge disparate communities and bring new connections to each project.

Remarkably broad network of 181 unique partners across 35 countries from only 12 projects, averaging over 15 new partners per project. Their reach spans nearly all EU member states plus associated countries, with no strong geographic concentration beyond a pan-European spread.

What sets them apart

Crowdhelix stands out as a dedicated open innovation network operator rather than a research performer or technology developer. Their extreme topical diversity — participating in projects ranging from haptic interfaces to aquaculture to liver disease — is not a weakness but their defining feature: they provide the connective tissue between research communities. For consortium builders, Crowdhelix brings an established platform with reach across sectors, which is particularly valuable for projects requiring broad dissemination, community engagement, or cross-disciplinary networking.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ASTRAL
  Largest single grant (EUR 365,000) in a major All-Atlantic aquaculture initiative covering new value chains, circularity, and climate change impacts.
• VARCITIES
  Second-largest funding (EUR 339,238) in a flagship nature-based solutions project for urban health, wellbeing, and resilience across European cities.
• RAWMINA
  Addresses critical raw materials recovery from mine waste — a strategic EU priority — combining bioleaching, electrochemistry, and circular economy approaches.