HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-02: "Understanding the forms of local democracy in low-income and low-middle income countries"

VILABS is an impact oriented SME created in 2011, that acts both as a private research and innovation laboratory and as an innovation Hub for startups. It provides a wide range of research, development and consulting services to national as well as international enterprises and organisations, utilising a unique set of tangible and intangible resources, including knowledge, facilities, human and financial resources, supporting researchers and entrepreneurs to innovate.

We are currently looking for collaboration opportunities in the following CL2 call topic: "HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-02: Understanding the forms of local democracy in low-income and low-middle income countries".

Drawing on our interdisciplinary expertise in proposal writing and development, impact assessment, stakeholder engagement as well as communication and dissemination, ViLabs can support the consortium in key horizontal areas essential to the successful submission and further implementation, validation, and uptake of outcomes, specifically in:

Proposal writing and development: we can provide support throughout the full lifecycle of the the proposal development to the submission process, in terms of concept design, consortium building, proposal writing, administrative and budget support.

Community-centred engagement and validation approach: Building on our experience in participatory methods, we can support the design of community engagement strategies that involve local authorities, road users, and citizens in shaping and validating the project’s tools. Our role would focus on helping pilots understand user behaviour, trust in AI systems, and acceptance of predictive interventions in real-life urban settings. 

Socio-economic and policy impact assessment: We bring the tools and experience to assess the wider impact of crash prevention technologies, from reduced healthcare and productivity costs to long-term policy effects translating technical results into policy-relevant insights. 

Communication, exploitation and replication strategies: We can lead the development of outreach activities, help position the project among key European mobility and policy networks, and create strategies for replication and uptake in other cities or regions. 

Pilot support through multi-actor networks: While not mobility experts, we bring a strong ecosystem of public bodies, research institutions, and NGOs in Southern Europe, ready to support pilots, user testing, and exploitation planning in real-life contexts.