IDEA STRATEGISCHE ECONOMISCHE CONSULTING

Their core work

IDEA Consult is a Brussels-based strategic economic consulting firm that provides policy analysis, market studies, and socio-economic impact assessments for EU-funded research and innovation projects. Rather than contributing deep technical expertise in a single domain, they bring consulting capabilities — strategy development, roadmapping, market analysis, and dissemination — across diverse sectors from additive manufacturing to digital circular economy to pharmaceutical safety. Their role is to translate technical research outcomes into actionable policy and business recommendations.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

IDEA Consult began its H2020 participation with a coordination support action on additive manufacturing strategy (AM-motion, 2016-2018), a relatively small engagement. By 2020-2023, they moved into digital platforms and circular economy (DigiPrime), and their most recent and largest project (LIFESAVER, 2021-2025) enters health regulation territory — chemicals safety, pharmacovigilance, and biodigital twins. The trajectory shows a firm expanding from pure industrial strategy toward health-related regulatory and safety consulting, with growing project budgets reflecting deeper involvement.

Moving toward health-sector regulatory consulting and safety assessment, with their largest funding commitment in pharmaceutical and fetal health domains.

How they like to work

IDEA Consult operates exclusively as a participant, never leading consortia — consistent with a consulting firm that supports project teams rather than driving research agendas. With 67 unique partners across just 3 projects, they work in large consortia (averaging 22+ partners per project), suggesting comfort operating in complex multi-partner environments. Their broad partner base across 18 countries indicates they are a flexible collaborator rather than one embedded in a fixed network.

Despite only 3 projects, IDEA Consult has collaborated with 67 unique partners across 18 countries, reflecting their involvement in large European consortia. Being Brussels-based gives them proximity to EU institutions and policy networks.

What sets them apart

IDEA Consult's value lies in being a sector-agnostic strategic consulting firm that can drop into any technical consortium and handle the economic analysis, market assessment, and policy translation work. Their Brussels location and SME flexibility make them an accessible partner for consortia needing socio-economic expertise without the overhead of a large consultancy. Their recent pivot into health regulation consulting (LIFESAVER) suggests growing capacity for regulatory impact work beyond traditional industrial sectors.

Highlights from their portfolio

• LIFESAVER
  Their largest project (EUR 411K) and a significant domain shift into fetal health, drug safety, and biodigital twins — unusual territory for an economics consultancy.
• DigiPrime
  Circular economy digital platform project bridging sustainability with cross-sectoral value networks, reflecting their ability to work at the intersection of digital and green agendas.