Optit and EU projects: more than funding

At Optit, we help complex organisations make better decisions by combining mathematics, data science, AI, consulting and technology. That mission doesn’t stop at our clients’ projects. It’s also why we take part in European research and innovation programmes,

where we can push our Decision Intelligence tools further, test them against new challenges, and contribute to the green and digital transition reshaping the industries we serve.

Here’s an honest look at what we gain from EU projects, what they cost us, what we bring to them, and which programmes we’re part of.

The gains of taking part in EU projects

Funding lets us advance our Decision Intelligence tools (predictive, prescriptive, analytics, AI) towards greater maturity. But this is about more than making them market-ready. The more mature the tools become, the more they help businesses make the right decisions: choices that lighten their impact on society and the environment, and, at the same time, strengthen their margins. That combination sets off a virtuous circle, where doing better and performing better go hand in hand.

It also opens the door to applying those tools to a wider range of cases across different EU countries. That means stronger, real-world validation, and a lower access threshold to advanced decision tools for organisations that might not have reached for them otherwise.

And working inside a consortium puts us shoulder to shoulder with highly reputable researchers and leading market players. We come out with sharper know-how and new perspectives, gained by confronting our approaches with the best in research and in the market.

The pains (because yes, there are some)

No project comes for free. Building a consortium takes time: finding the right partners, aligning on concepts and organisational details, drafting and fine-checking the proposal. And if that proposal isn’t selected for funding, all of it can look like wasted effort.

We don’t see it that way. Even when a proposal isn’t financed, we come away with a wider network and richer exchanges with researchers working on the same problems. That value stays with us. So we think it’s always worth trying.

What we bring to the table

EU projects are never a one-way street. We don’t only receive from them, we contribute. Optit brings high-level scientific competences that are already developed and tested on the market, not laboratory prototypes. We pair them with deep domain knowledge and fifteen years of hands-on experience solving real decision problems in energy, industry, logistics and waste management.

For a consortium, that combination shortens the path from research idea to working application, and puts methods to the test where the cost of a wrong decision is concrete.

It’s how we give back to the international research community, and how we help the European Union move towards its own goals: a climate-neutral Europe by 2050, reached through a transition that is both green and digital.

Which EU programmes are we involved in, and why?

Optit is currently involved in several LIFE projects. Launched in 1992, the LIFE Programme is the European Union’s dedicated funding instrument for the environment, nature conservation and climate action. Most of the sectors we work in, such as energy, logistics, waste management and industry, carry a heavy carbon footprint. Optimising these activities means shrinking that footprint.

LIFE funding gives the utilities and industry ecosystem the chance to apply decarbonisation technologies more widely, cutting fossil-fuel use and building a more resilient, sustainable European economy.

We’ve also been active in several Horizon projects. Horizon Europe is the EU’s flagship research and innovation programme, running from 2021 to 2027 with a €95.5 billion budget, created to strengthen the impact of research on EU policy and to tackle global challenges together. For Optit, Horizon means joining a vibrant research community:

Giving academics the chance to test novel approaches on real cases, and keeping pace with what EU research produces.

And through an Erasmus+ project, we’re helping to equip professionals with the green and digital skills the heating and cooling sector needs for its sustainable transition.

EU projects, better decisions and a sustainable transition

So why does a company built on Decision Intelligence spend time on all this?

Because better decisions and a more sustainable economy are the same goal seen from two angles. EU projects let us push our methods further, share what we’ve already learned, and put both to work where the impact is greatest, decision by decision.