International Research Programmes & R&D Partnerships

The Challenge

The most important problems in software engineering -- sustainability, AI safety, healthcare AI, and responsible governance -- cannot be solved by any single organisation. They require collaborative research across borders, disciplines, and sectors. University researchers bring theoretical depth; large enterprises bring scale and data; SMEs like Digital Tactics bring agility, engineering rigour, and the ability to translate research findings into working software.

Participating in international research programmes presents its own challenges. Funding frameworks like ITEA Eureka and Innovate UK require detailed technical proposals, rigorous project management, and structured dissemination of results. The research must balance academic novelty with practical applicability, and the outputs must be demonstrable, reproducible, and relevant to industry needs.

Our Approach

Digital Tactics has built a sustained research practice within its commercial engineering team, participating as a full technical partner in international consortia. We contribute production-grade software engineering to programmes that might otherwise remain purely academic, ensuring that research prototypes evolve into tools that practitioners can actually use. Our role typically spans requirements analysis, software architecture, implementation of measurement and analysis tools, and validation through real-world case studies.

We manage our research commitments with the same project discipline we apply to commercial work -- clear milestones, regular deliverables, and transparent communication with consortium partners. Our research outputs flow directly into our commercial products and services, creating a virtuous cycle where international collaboration strengthens our client offerings and client experience informs our research contributions.

• Full technical partnership in international consortia -- not passive participation but active software engineering contributions
• Translation of research prototypes into production-grade tools with real-world applicability
• Rigorous project management meeting international funding framework requirements
• Virtuous cycle between research outputs and commercial product development

Projects & Clients

The GreenCode programme, part of the ITEA Eureka cluster, is a multi-year international research project focused on measuring and reducing the energy consumption of software. Digital Tactics contributes energy measurement tooling, analysis frameworks, and validation case studies to a consortium spanning universities and enterprises across Europe. Our GreenCode.ai platform and PHP Energy product are direct commercial outputs of this research, making software energy measurement accessible to development teams worldwide.

The GIGI programme (Global Initiative for Governance of AI) addresses the critical challenge of AI governance -- how organisations can deploy artificial intelligence systems responsibly, with appropriate oversight, transparency, and accountability. Digital Tactics contributes practical governance frameworks and assessment tooling, informed by our commercial AI ethics work. The GLEAM programme focuses on medical AI, investigating how machine learning can be applied safely and effectively in healthcare contexts where the energy and environmental impact of AI systems must be considered alongside clinical outcomes. Our Scientific Computing optimisation work provides foundational expertise in making computationally intensive research workflows more efficient.

Results & Impact

• Active participation in 3 international research programmes (GreenCode ITEA, GIGI, GLEAM) with multi-year commitments
• Commercial products (GreenCode.ai, PHP Energy, AIIA) directly derived from research programme outputs
• Contributions to emerging international standards for software energy measurement and AI governance
• Cross-border collaboration with university and enterprise partners advancing sustainable and responsible technology