CONSENSUS is a multilateral, multi-institutional and multidisciplinary project funded by the European Union as part of the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013). It is being run by six universities in five countries, coordinated by the University of Konstanz (Germany). El Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI, Spain) is one of the partners, together with the Free University of Berlin (Germany), the University of East Anglia(United Kingdom), Aarhus University (Denmark) and the European University Institute (Italy). 

The project's goal is to advance in the systematic analysis of trade-offs and synergies among different levels of economic pressure and the process of changes in social and environmental policy – two key areas of sustainable development. In other words, the research tries to ascertain the extent of patterns of policy dismantling or expansion in the two areas studied, and how these patterns vary among countries and over time.