I-DEALS INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY VENTURING SERVICES SL

Their core work

I-DEALS is a Madrid-based innovation and technology venturing consultancy that specialises in coordinating EU-funded research projects at the intersection of carbon capture, industrial decarbonisation, and Power-to-X chemistry. Their documented work centres on converting waste CO2 and residual industrial gases into methanol — both as a fuel and as a chemical feedstock. Rather than conducting laboratory research themselves, they act as the orchestrating intelligence in multi-country consortia: assembling research teams, managing project governance, and translating technical work into commercially relevant outcomes. Their name and funding-scheme mix (one RIA, one IA) confirm a profile that bridges early-stage research and market-ready innovation.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both H2020 projects run very close together in time (2014 and 2016 starts) and no keyword metadata is available, making a fine-grained evolution analysis unreliable. What can be said is that their first project (MefCO2) attacked the problem from the energy side — storing surplus renewable electricity as methanol via CO2 hydrogenation — while their second project (FReSMe) attacked it from the industrial waste side, using off-gases from steel production. This represents a deliberate broadening from a clean-energy framing to an industrial-decarbonisation framing, suggesting they recognised that the same methanol synthesis chemistry could address multiple market entry points. No H2020 projects have started since 2016, so it is unclear whether they continued this trajectory in Horizon Europe.

I-DEALS appears to be moving from pure Power-to-X toward integrated industrial decarbonisation, making them a potentially relevant partner for Horizon Europe calls on green steel, industrial symbiosis, or e-fuels — if they remain active in EU projects.

How they like to work

I-DEALS consistently takes the coordinator role — they have never appeared as a simple participant in H2020 data. With 19 distinct partners across 10 countries managed over just two projects, they work with relatively large, diverse consortia rather than tight bilateral partnerships. This profile — private company, always leading, broad international networks — is characteristic of innovation intermediaries whose primary value is in structuring consortia and managing project execution, not in contributing proprietary IP or laboratory capacity.

I-DEALS has built a European network of 19 consortium partners across 10 countries through just two projects, indicating deliberate outreach to diverse national research and industrial actors. No strong geographic concentration is visible from the available data, suggesting a pan-European rather than Iberian-focused network.

What sets them apart

I-DEALS occupies an unusual niche as a non-SME private innovation consultancy that coordinates technically deep projects in carbon chemistry — a space more typically led by universities or research institutes. Their dual-project focus on methanol as both a product and a platform gives them rare cross-sector credibility: they can speak the language of energy storage, chemical production, and heavy-industry decarbonisation simultaneously. For a consortium builder needing a commercially-minded project lead who understands CCU from both the energy and industrial waste angles, they represent a distinctive option among Spanish private-sector coordinators.

Highlights from their portfolio

• MefCO2
  The larger of the two projects (EUR 1,042,333) and an early Power-to-X demonstration that linked carbon capture directly to renewable electricity surplus — an approach that has since become a major strand of EU climate policy.
• FReSMe
  Targets residual gases from steel production — one of the hardest industrial sectors to decarbonise — making it directly relevant to current EU Green Deal priorities around green steel and industrial transformation.