OPPLA EEIG

Their core work

OPPLA operates Europe's open knowledge platform for nature-based solutions, serving as a digital marketplace where researchers, practitioners, and policymakers share evidence, tools, and case studies on working with nature to address urban and environmental challenges. As a European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG), they aggregate and curate knowledge from dozens of EU-funded projects, making fragmented NBS research accessible and actionable. Their core value lies in connecting communities across projects — they are the connective tissue between Europe's nature-based solutions initiatives, facilitating knowledge exchange, multi-stakeholder dialogue, and natural capital assessment methodologies.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

OPPLA's early work (2016-2018) centered on building foundational infrastructure: natural capital accounting frameworks, valuation methodologies, and the first multi-stakeholder dialogue platforms for nature-based solutions. From 2020 onward, their focus shifted decisively toward applied urban implementation — ecosystem restoration in cities, health co-benefits of greening, and international cooperation with Latin America. The trajectory shows a clear move from "defining and measuring nature's value" to "deploying nature-based solutions in real urban contexts and measuring their social impact."

OPPLA is expanding from pure knowledge brokering toward measuring social outcomes (health, resilience) and building international NBS cooperation networks beyond Europe.

How they like to work

OPPLA operates exclusively as a participant — they have never coordinated an H2020 project, which is consistent with their role as a platform and knowledge broker rather than a research leader. With 189 unique consortium partners across 39 countries, they have one of the widest networks in the NBS space, functioning as a hub that connects otherwise separate project communities. Working with OPPLA means gaining access to this extensive network and their platform for disseminating results to a broad NBS practitioner audience.

An exceptionally wide network of 189 unique partners across 39 countries, spanning well beyond Europe into Latin America through INTERLACE. This breadth reflects their role as a network-of-networks — each project they join connects them to an entirely new cluster of organizations working on nature-based solutions.

What sets them apart

OPPLA is not a research performer — they are the platform where NBS research becomes findable and usable. This makes them uniquely valuable for any consortium that needs a dissemination and knowledge-sharing backbone: they bring an established audience, a curated evidence base, and connections to dozens of parallel NBS projects. For a consortium builder, adding OPPLA means your project results won't sit in a PDF — they'll be integrated into Europe's primary NBS knowledge marketplace and reach practitioners who actually implement these solutions.

Highlights from their portfolio

• INTERLACE
  Largest funding (EUR 433K) and extends OPPLA's reach beyond Europe into Latin America through EU-CELAC cooperation on urban ecosystem restoration.
• We Value Nature
  Directly aligned with OPPLA's core mission — building a network of networks for natural capital accounting and bridging the gap between valuation science and business practice.
• NetworkNature
  A coordination and support action specifically designed to connect all EU NBS projects — essentially making OPPLA the central node in Europe's NBS project ecosystem.