WHITE RESEARCH SRL

Their core work

White Research is a Brussels-based innovation consultancy specializing in social research, community engagement, and the societal dimensions of technology transitions. They help technical consortia understand and involve citizens, communities, and end-users — bridging the gap between research outcomes and real-world adoption. Their work spans stakeholder engagement design, social innovation methodologies, responsible research and innovation (RRI) frameworks, and communication strategies. Across 18 H2020 projects, they consistently serve as the partner that ensures technology projects account for human and societal factors.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

White Research started with urban mobility and public transport innovation (CIPTEC 2015, Cities-4-People 2017), focused on how communities interact with infrastructure changes. From 2019 onward, they pivoted strongly toward energy communities, bioenergy uptake, and circular economy — culminating in coordinating BECoop on bioenergy cooperatives. Their most recent projects add cybersecurity societal assessment (SANCUS), AI in healthcare (INCISIVE), and citizen science governance (INCENTIVE), suggesting a broadening into how society engages with advanced digital technologies.

Moving from transport-focused community engagement toward energy transition governance and the societal dimensions of AI and cybersecurity — positioning themselves as the go-to partner for the human side of deep-tech projects.

How they like to work

White Research operates almost exclusively as a consortium partner (17 of 18 projects), contributing specialized societal research and engagement expertise to technically-led projects. With 232 unique partners across 31 countries, they have an exceptionally broad network and rarely repeat the same consortium — indicating they are sought after as a flexible, topic-agnostic engagement partner. Their single coordinator role (BECoop) in their strongest domain suggests they prefer supporting roles but can lead when the topic centers on community engagement.

An extensive pan-European network spanning 232 unique partners across 31 countries, built through 18 projects. Based in Brussels, they are well-connected to both Western European research institutions and Mediterranean/Eastern European partners common in energy and circular economy consortia.

What sets them apart

White Research fills a specific niche that many technical consortia need but struggle to find: rigorous social research and community engagement that goes beyond token dissemination. Their ability to work across wildly different domains — from cancer AI to bioenergy cooperatives to cybersecurity — shows they are not sector-bound but methodology-bound. For consortium builders, they offer a proven track record of embedding societal acceptance, gender dimensions, and citizen participation into technical projects.

Highlights from their portfolio

• BECoop
  Their only coordinator role (EUR 452K) — bioenergy community cooperatives, representing their core strength in energy community engagement.
• INCISIVE
  Largest single funding (EUR 466K) in a cancer AI project, demonstrating their ability to contribute societal dimensions to advanced health-tech.
• CORALIS
  Long-running industrial symbiosis project (2020-2025) focused on CO2 utilization and circular value chains, showing commitment to sustainability transitions.