Portuguese corrections-sector IT consultancy specializing in de-radicalization programs and evidence-based countering of violent extremism.
Operating under the brand IPS – Innovative Prison System, this Portuguese SME applies IT solutions and consulting expertise to the corrections and criminal justice sector, with a specific focus on radicalization prevention and rehabilitation programs. Their H2020 work places them at the intersection of security policy, social intervention, and institutional innovation — contributing to research consortia studying how cities and prisons can detect, prevent, and reverse violent radicalization. They bring a practitioner-side perspective to evidence-based security research, translating policy frameworks into operational tools and assessments for correctional and public safety institutions. Their niche is narrow but well-defined: understanding and countering the pathways that lead individuals toward violent extremism, particularly in institutional and urban environments.
Both PRACTICIES and INDEED directly address radicalization prevention; INDEED's full keyword set is dominated by de-radicalization, countering violent extremism, and preventing violent extremism.
INDEED explicitly targets a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to evaluating and improving radicalization prevention interventions.
PRACTICIES (2017–2020) focused specifically on partnership-based responses to violent radicalization in city environments.
The organization's registered short name IPS – Innovative Prison System signals that correctional institutions are their primary operational domain, informing both H2020 projects.
The legal company name Qualify Just – IT Solutions and Consulting SA indicates a technology delivery capability underlying the policy-facing research participation.
Their first project, PRACTICIES (2017–2020), addressed violent radicalization at the city level — a broad community safety lens with no keywords recorded in the data, suggesting a supporting or dissemination role early on. By INDEED (2021–2024), their profile sharpened considerably: the project's full keyword set is centered on evidence-based evaluation, de-radicalization methods, and countering violent extremism, indicating a more substantive analytical contribution. The trajectory is one of deepening specialization — from general urban security partnership toward a defined expertise in measuring, evaluating, and improving radicalization prevention programs within institutional frameworks.
This organization is moving from broad security partnerships toward a specific niche in evidence-based assessment of de-radicalization programs, making them a likely fit for future H2020/HE projects that need practitioner expertise in evaluating CVE and PVE interventions.
They have participated exclusively as consortium partners across both projects, never taking a coordinator role — consistent with a specialist contributor model where they provide domain knowledge rather than project management. Despite only two projects, they have accumulated 41 unique partner organizations across 16 countries, which suggests they join mid-to-large, geographically distributed consortia rather than small focused teams. This broad network relative to a small project count implies they are valued as a practitioner voice — the "real-world operator" that large academic-led consortia recruit to ground their research in institutional reality.
Despite only two completed projects, the organization has worked with 41 distinct consortium partners spanning 16 countries — an unusually wide network for such a small participation record, pointing to large multi-partner RIA consortia rather than bilateral collaborations. No geographic concentration is identifiable from the available data, though their base in central Portugal (Covilhã area) does not appear to have constrained their European reach.
Among Portuguese security-sector participants in H2020, this SME occupies a very specific operational niche: they are a corrections-sector IT and consulting firm that brings direct prison system knowledge into academic-led research on radicalization — a combination that is genuinely rare and difficult for universities or pure policy institutes to replicate. For consortium builders targeting Horizon Europe security calls, they offer the credibility of an actual system operator in the criminal justice chain, not just a consultant. Their small size means they are agile and motivated; their dual identity as both technology provider and domain specialist makes them potentially useful beyond research — into piloting or deploying outputs.
