Ecuadorian urban sustainability consultancy bridging EU and Latin American cities through nature-based solutions and ecosystem restoration.
YES INNOVATION is a private consultancy based in Quito, Ecuador, specializing in urban sustainability and nature-based solutions with a particular focus on bridging Latin American and European urban development practice. Their core value in international consortia lies in providing ground-level knowledge of Latin American urban contexts — particularly relevant to EU projects requiring genuine engagement with CELAC-region cities. They contribute expertise in participatory co-production of knowledge, where communities, researchers, and policymakers jointly design urban ecological interventions. Their two H2020 projects consistently place them as a regional knowledge broker facilitating multi-directional cooperation between European and Latin American urban actors.
Both CLEVER Cities and INTERLACE explicitly involve cross-continental urban partnerships, with INTERLACE specifically targeting EU-CELAC cooperation to restore and connect urban environments.
CLEVER Cities focuses on co-designing locally tailored ecological solutions, while INTERLACE targets urban ecosystem restoration across Latin America and Europe.
CLEVER Cities is built around community co-design methodologies, and 'co-production of knowledge' appears as an explicit keyword in the INTERLACE project.
CLEVER Cities centers on socially inclusive urban ecological solutions; INTERLACE lists 'resilient and inclusive cities' as a core keyword.
The early period (CLEVER Cities, 2018) lacks recorded keywords, suggesting a broader, exploratory entry into EU-funded urban ecology work. By 2020, with INTERLACE, their profile sharpened considerably into a coherent specialty: urban ecosystem restoration as a vehicle for structured EU-CELAC knowledge exchange. The shift is not a change of direction but a deepening — moving from general co-design of urban ecological solutions toward a defined regional niche as a Latin American partner capable of operationalizing international cooperation frameworks in real cities.
YES INNOVATION is consolidating a niche as the go-to Latin American partner for EU consortia working on urban nature-based solutions and EU-CELAC policy dialogue — a positioning that becomes more valuable as EU Green Deal funding increasingly requires global partner engagement.
YES INNOVATION has participated exclusively as a consortium partner, never as project coordinator — consistent with their role as a regional specialist brought in for their Latin American presence and local knowledge rather than for project management capacity. Both their projects sit within very large international consortia (contributing to 55 unique partner relationships across 19 countries from just two projects), indicating they work in flagship-scale initiatives with broad geographic spread. This suggests they are most effective when embedded in consortia where a European lead handles coordination and YES INNOVATION contributes specific regional access and community-level expertise.
Despite only two projects, YES INNOVATION has built connections with 55 unique consortium partners across 19 countries — a broad footprint that reflects the large, multi-city character of both CLEVER Cities and INTERLACE. Their network spans Europe and Latin America, reinforcing their positioning as a cross-continental bridge organization.
YES INNOVATION occupies a rare position: a private SME based in Ecuador that has successfully entered EU H2020 consortia as a legitimate research and practice partner, not merely as a token third-country participant. Their location in Quito gives them direct access to Latin American urban governance contexts, community networks, and local authorities that European partners cannot replicate from a distance. For any consortium building toward EU-CELAC cooperation requirements or needing credible Latin American field sites for urban nature-based solution pilots, YES INNOVATION fills a gap that few organizations can.
