VILABS OE

Their core work

VILABS is a Greek SME specializing in community engagement, social innovation platforms, and institutional change consulting — particularly around gender equality in research organizations. They design and run coordination actions that build networks, deliver training programs, and create digital tools for collective behavior change. Their work spans from food waste reduction platforms to gender equality academies, always centered on mobilizing communities and driving institutional transformation through structured programs.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

VILABS began (2015-2018) with a broad digital engagement focus: women's web entrepreneurship, food waste platforms, nanotechnology public engagement, and startup ecosystems. From 2019 onward, they pivoted decisively toward gender equality in research and innovation, coordinating three consecutive projects (EQUAL-IST, GE Academy, CALIPER) that built training programs, equality plans, and institutional change frameworks. In parallel, they expanded into social impact assessment and health infrastructure, suggesting a maturing identity as a social innovation consultancy rather than a purely digital platform builder.

VILABS is consolidating as a gender equality and social impact specialist, likely positioning for Horizon Europe missions around inclusive research ecosystems and responsible innovation.

How they like to work

VILABS coordinates half their projects (5 of 10), which is unusually high for an SME — they clearly prefer to lead rather than follow. With 103 unique partners across 31 countries, they operate as a network hub, building broad coalitions rather than returning to the same small group. This makes them a strong consortium-building partner: experienced at managing diverse, multi-country teams and comfortable taking on coordination overhead that larger institutions often avoid.

Extensive European network of 103 unique consortium partners spanning 31 countries — one of the broadest partner networks you will find among Greek SMEs. Their reach covers Western, Eastern, and Southern Europe with no obvious geographic concentration.

What sets them apart

VILABS occupies a rare niche: an SME that successfully coordinates EU-funded Coordination and Support Actions (CSAs), a role typically held by universities or large research organizations. Their combination of gender equality expertise, digital platform development, and community mobilization skills makes them a one-stop partner for projects needing institutional change management and broad public engagement. For consortium builders, they bring proven coordination capacity and an unusually wide European network for a company of their size.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CALIPER
  Their largest-funded project (EUR 345,881) and most recent coordination role, linking gender equality research with innovation ecosystems through a quadruple helix approach.
• SavingFood
  Their first coordination role — built an ICT platform connecting food redistribution networks, demonstrating their core capability of using digital tools for collective social action.
• METICOS
  Their highest single-project funding (EUR 382,500) and a departure into security/border control, showing capacity for big data analytics and social impact monitoring beyond their usual domain.