STICHTING BOTH ENDS

Their core work

Both Ends is a Dutch environmental NGO based in Amsterdam that works at the intersection of sustainable agriculture, water governance, and climate justice — with a particular focus on connecting Global South civil society with European research and policy. In the iSQAPER project, they contributed a multi-actor approach to soil quality assessment, bringing in farmer networks and civil society voices alongside scientists across Europe and China. In AfriAlliance, they served as a bridge between African and EU actors on water and climate innovation, a role that fits their core institutional mandate of North-South knowledge exchange. Their value in research consortia is not technical lab work but policy translation, stakeholder engagement, and linking scientific findings to on-the-ground communities.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both Ends entered H2020 through soil quality and sustainable farming systems in Europe and China (iSQAPER, 2015), where their keywords reveal a grounding in agricultural management practices, ecosystem services, and farmer-level interventions. By 2016 they had moved into the Africa-EU water and climate space with AfriAlliance, suggesting a broadening from European agricultural soil science toward global water governance and climate resilience — a shift consistent with an NGO deepening its Global South engagement. With no recent-period keywords available, the trajectory is partially obscured, but the move from soil/food systems to water/climate/Africa signals an organization expanding its geographic and thematic scope.

Both Ends appears to be moving from European agricultural sustainability toward broader North-South environmental governance, making them a stronger fit for future projects that need civil society linkages between Africa and Europe on climate or water.

How they like to work

Both Ends has participated exclusively as a consortium partner — never as a coordinator — across both H2020 projects, which reflects how NGOs typically position themselves in EU research: as embedded voices rather than project leads. Despite the modest funding received (EUR 267,219 total), they have engaged with 40 unique partners across 22 countries, indicating they are brought into large, internationally distributed consortia where their role is outreach, civil society engagement, and policy translation rather than technical research. Working with them means gaining access to their established networks in the Global South and their ability to connect scientific work to communities and policy audiences.

Both Ends has built connections across 40 consortium partners spanning 22 countries through just two projects, suggesting participation in large, geographically diverse consortia — AfriAlliance in particular would explain the African and developing-country reach. Their network leans global rather than purely European.

What sets them apart

Both Ends fills a gap that universities and research institutes typically cannot: direct, credible access to civil society networks in Africa and the Global South, combined with a track record of translating scientific research into policy and community action. In a consortium, they are the partner who ensures that soil science or water innovation actually reaches farmers, local governments, and NGOs on the ground rather than staying in academic journals. For coordinators building projects that need to demonstrate societal impact or multi-actor participation, Both Ends brings legitimacy and reach that technical partners alone cannot provide.

Highlights from their portfolio

• iSQAPER
  The largest project by funding (EUR 196,250) and the one with the richest keyword profile — covering soil quality, farming systems, ecosystem services, and multi-actor approaches across Europe and China, showing Both Ends operating at the intersection of agricultural science and civil society.
• AfriAlliance
  A rare Africa-EU research alliance on water and climate that signals Both Ends' Global South networks and their ability to bridge African and European innovation communities — a distinctive asset for international consortia.