Brussels-based NGO facilitating stakeholder engagement and co-creation in EU sustainability, nature-based solutions, and just transition projects.
Prospex Institute is a Brussels-based NGO specializing in stakeholder engagement, participatory processes, and social science research within sustainability transitions. They facilitate multi-actor dialogues and co-creation processes in EU innovation projects spanning circular economy, nature-based solutions, energy communities, and forest ecosystem management. Their consistent role across 17 diverse projects — predominantly Innovation Actions — indicates they bring expertise in bridging research outputs with societal actors, ensuring community buy-in and just transition principles are embedded in technical projects.
Present across all 17 projects as a participant handling participatory processes — from energy communities (DECIDE) to forest value chains (RESONATE) to nature-based urban solutions (VARCITIES, JUSTNature).
Core focus in VARCITIES, JUSTNature, WaterLANDS, SUPERB, and RESONATE — all addressing nature-based approaches to climate resilience in urban and rural settings.
Active in textile recycling (RESYNTEX, SCIRT), bioplastics (BIO-PLASTICS EUROPE), multilayer plastics (CIMPA), and grass-based circular models (GO-GRASS).
Growing cluster in SINCERE, SUPERB (largest single grant at EUR 1.36M), and RESONATE — all focused on forest resilience, biodiversity monitoring, and forest value chains.
DECIDE focused on energy community collective actions, STORY on energy storage in distribution systems, and EXCESS on user-centric energy-positive buildings.
JUSTNature explicitly addresses environmental justice in low-carbon transitions; WaterLANDS embeds just transition and financial mechanisms in wetland restoration.
In their early H2020 period (2015–2019), Prospex Institute worked across energy storage, critical raw materials, textile recycling, and rural circular economy — a broad portfolio suggesting they were establishing themselves as a versatile stakeholder engagement partner. From 2020 onward, their focus sharpened dramatically toward nature-based solutions, forest ecosystems, climate adaptation, and environmental justice — with five of their last eight projects explicitly addressing these themes. This pivot signals a strategic repositioning from general sustainability facilitation toward becoming a specialized partner for climate-nature-justice projects.
Prospex is consolidating around nature-based climate solutions and environmental justice — expect them to pursue Horizon Europe missions on climate adaptation and biodiversity restoration.
Prospex Institute is exclusively a participant — they have never coordinated an H2020 project, which is consistent with their role as a facilitation and engagement specialist rather than a research leader. With 299 unique consortium partners across 32 countries, they operate in large, diverse consortia typical of Innovation Actions (12 of 17 projects are IAs). This broad but non-repeating partner network suggests they are sought out by different coordinators for their specific engagement expertise rather than building a closed circle of repeat collaborators.
With 299 unique partners across 32 countries, Prospex Institute has one of the broadest collaboration networks for an organization of its size — reflecting their presence in large Innovation Action consortia that span nearly all EU member states and associated countries.
Prospex Institute fills a specific niche that many technical consortia struggle with: making research projects socially relevant and participatory. Their Brussels base gives them proximity to EU policy circles, while their NGO status allows them to credibly represent civil society perspectives in industry-heavy consortia. For coordinators building proposals, they offer a ready-made solution for work packages on citizen engagement, co-creation, and just transition — areas increasingly required by Horizon Europe calls.
