HORIZON NUA INNOVATION

Their core work

HORIZON NUA INNOVATION is a Dublin-based research SME specialising in nature-based solutions for urban environments, with a focus on how green infrastructure can drive city transitions, improve community resilience, and deliver measurable wellbeing outcomes. Their work sits at the intersection of urban planning, environmental design, and public health — translating ecological interventions into social and governance outcomes for cities. In practice, they contribute to large innovation-action consortia that pilot and evaluate nature-based approaches in real urban settings, working alongside municipalities, research institutions, and communities. Their dual-project track record suggests a niche but consistent specialism: making cities greener and more liveable through evidence-based, community-engaged methods.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (from 2017), the emphasis was on urban governance, city-led transitions, and the co-production of nature-based solutions with municipalities — a systemic, top-down framing concerned with how cities change. By their second project (from 2020), the focus had shifted noticeably toward individual and community outcomes: mental health, physical activity, and resilience — a more bottom-up, people-centred framing. This suggests a deliberate move from urban systems design toward measuring and communicating the human health benefits of green infrastructure, likely reflecting both funding trends and accumulated evidence from CONNECTING Nature.

They are moving toward the health co-benefits of urban greening — a space that sits between environmental policy and public health — which positions them well for future consortia linking green infrastructure to urban wellbeing strategies or climate adaptation health agendas.

How they like to work

HORIZON NUA INNOVATION has consistently joined large international consortia as a participant, never taking on a coordinator role in H2020. Despite having only two projects, they have accumulated 74 unique consortium partners across 26 countries — an unusually broad network that indicates participation in very large, multi-city innovation actions rather than small bilateral collaborations. This suggests they are valued as a specialist contributor within complex consortia rather than as a project manager, and that working with them brings access to their extended European urban research network.

With 74 unique partners across 26 countries from just two projects, HORIZON NUA INNOVATION has a disproportionately wide European reach for its size — both projects are large-scale innovation actions involving front-runner cities and diverse institutional types. Their network likely spans municipal authorities, urban research institutes, and public health bodies across northern, western, and southern Europe.

What sets them apart

HORIZON NUA INNOVATION occupies a specific niche as an Irish SME operating at the junction of urban nature-based solutions and community health outcomes — a combination that is underrepresented among research SMEs, which tend to skew toward either environmental engineering or social science. Their SME status and Dublin base make them an attractive partner for consortia seeking a non-academic, innovation-oriented organisation with Irish/Atlantic-region representation. However, with only two completed projects, their track record is limited, and prospective partners should weigh their clear thematic focus against the absence of a coordinator-level leadership record.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CONNECTING Nature
  Their largest project by funding (€763,631), focused on co-producing nature-based solutions with front-runner cities, and notable for its transdisciplinary governance framing across a large multi-country consortium.
• GO GREEN ROUTES
  Demonstrates a pivot toward urban health outcomes — linking green urban routes to mental health and physical activity — extending their work into a growing intersection between environmental design and public health policy.