Is OSE a consultancy?

No. OSE is a scientific observatory. Advisory mandates apply the observatory's framework, database and scientific council to a specific institutional question. Deliverables are research outputs with explicit methodology, not consulting decks.

Why start with the soil rather than the programmes?

Because on the OSE base, rule enforcement is a necessary condition of support effectiveness (necessity 0.854). Predicted business creation for apparatus-builder countries goes from 1.3 to 6.4 per 1,000 working-age adults once rules are enforced — the same apparatus, a different soil.

Why never a single score?

Layers do not add up (α = 0.001). An ecosystem is a profile read conditionally on its enforcement regime, and never above the urban module — 68.4% of composition variance is within countries.

How fast can we start?

A 45-minute scoping call, then a written proposal within five working days: scope, method, team, timeline, fee. Weekly progress syncs and a mid-mandate readout during execution.

Applied research & scientific advisory

The observatory answers your strategic question.

OSE is not a consultancy. It is the scientific observatory of entrepreneurial ecosystems — 60,600+ qualified support organizations across 150+ countries, a peer-reviewed framework, a scientific council — and it delivers applied-research mandates on demand: Diagnosis, Roadmap, Impact.

Book a 45-min scoping call →See the three offers

Institutions we have worked with

Method

Every mandate follows the COTEE orchestration cycle.

Seed · Soil · Gardener: the actors present, the country's capacity to enforce its rules, and the deliberately built support. The cycle tells us what to look at first — and what not to fund.

1
Read the soil before funding the seed
Measure rule enforcement and the credibility of quality signals (revocable accreditation) before adding programmes. Support is inert as a main effect and powerful as a complement of the institutional regime.
2
Find the modules
The module is urban: 68.4% of the variance in ecosystem composition sits within countries. Work at the level of the city basin, not the national envelope.
3
Couple, do not stack
Fund pathways, not portals. Where rules are enforced, the visibility of interfaces (one-stop shops, portals) turns negative (−0.46); write sunset clauses into every one-stop shop.
4
Institutionalise what grew
Measure longitudinally, then turn the modules that produced outcomes into durable institutions — accreditation that can be revoked, reporting that outlives the mandate.

Orchestrating is not conducting the orchestra — it is tuning the hall.

— COTEE — Cultivated Order Theory of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Three offers

Diagnosis · Roadmap · Impact

Each offer answers one question, on one step of the cycle, with a fixed duration and named deliverables. They chain — but each stands alone.

Diagnosis

“Which regime are we in, where are our modules, and what is the apparatus actually delivering?”

6–10 weeksRead the soil · Find the modules

Method

Enforcement regime (WGI 2023) and COTEE profile — apparatus-builder or endowment-based — never summed (α = 0.001).
Urban modules: city basins, 5-layer profiles, coverage of the 14 boosts, Louvain communities and central actors.
Architecture vs. substance: Coverage Index, Functional Differentiation, Service Redundancy, Ecosystem Effectiveness Score, Resilience-Adjusted Redundancy.
Cross-lenses: Aligned Gender Index × women-focused support; AEEI position on Stam's elements (African countries).
Benchmark against up to 6 peer countries on the same framework.

Deliverables

Diagnostic report (EN / FR) with executive summary
Live dashboard on OSE Expert (12 months, multi-seat)
Data annex: profiles, modules, network exports (CSV)
One in-person or remote presentation to the steering body

For: Governments · donors · sovereign funds · foundations · investors

Roadmap

“What do we fund, what do we couple, what do we sunset — city by city, in which order?”

8–12 weeksCouple, do not stack

Method

Builds on a Diagnosis. Interventions prioritised by regime: soil first where enforcement is weak, content where it is strong.
Pathways, not portals: coupling of existing modules on measured complementarities (Test→Proto ×20.7, Sales→Market ×11.5, Team→Mentor ×9).
Sunset clauses on interfaces whose visibility turns negative under enforcement (H5: −0.46).
Sequencing, resource allocation matrix, KPIs defined on OSE measures so that progress is recomputed live.
Three stakeholder workshops (ministry / agencies / operators).

Deliverables

Multi-year roadmap with milestones and owners
Resource allocation matrix and de-duplication plan
KPI dashboard on OSE Expert, recomputed on the live base
Workshop reports and decision memos

For: Governments · multilaterals · bilateral programmes · sovereign instances

Impact

“Did the programme move the ecosystem — beyond the background trend — and what should become permanent?”

4–8 weeksInstitutionalise what grew

Method

Longitudinal OSE data (10+ years, measured profiles) as baseline and follow-up; founding cohorts and turnover as controls.
Pre-registered counterfactual and comparison groups; attribution of changes in coverage, redundancy, differentiation and network structure.
Effect sizes with confidence intervals; mapping to the client's results framework (IEG / BDEV / AIMM-style reviews).
Methodology reviewed by the OSE scientific council.
Recommendation on what to institutionalise: revocable accreditation, reporting that outlives the mandate.

Deliverables

Impact assessment report with attribution methodology
Effect sizes, confidence intervals, per-programme reading
Institutionalisation memo (accreditation, reporting, governance)
Reviewer-ready methodological annex

For: Donors & DFIs · foundations · ministries · sovereign funds

Also available on the same method: investor market-entry due diligence (2–4 weeks), embedded policy support on retainer, bilateral joint diagnostics — see bilateral cooperation.

Why this method

Because the apparatus only pays where the rules are enforced.

Replicated on 111 countries with WGI 2023 and World Bank outcomes.

1.3 → 6.4

Predicted business creation per 1,000 working-age adults for apparatus-builder countries, weak vs. enforced rules. Endowment-based: 1.5 → 4.

68.4% within countries

Share of the variance in ecosystem composition that sits inside countries. The module is urban; the national figure is an aggregate.

81% architecture ahead

93 of 115 countries have built more governance architecture than substance — the diagnosis starts by separating the two.

How we work

From scoping call to delivery.

1
Scoping call
30 minutes, free. You frame the question; we read your country live and say what is answerable.
2
Proposal
Within five working days: scope, method, team, timeline, fee.
3
Execution
Weekly progress sync, mid-mandate readout, co-construction with your teams.
4
Delivery
Report, presentation, dashboard on OSE Expert, and a 12-month support window.

Questions

What clients ask before signing.

Is OSE a consultancy?: No. OSE is a scientific observatory. Advisory mandates apply the observatory's framework, database and scientific council to a specific institutional question. Deliverables are research outputs with explicit methodology, not consulting decks.
Why start with the soil rather than the programmes?: Because on the OSE base, rule enforcement is a necessary condition of support effectiveness (necessity 0.854). Predicted business creation for apparatus-builder countries goes from 1.3 to 6.4 per 1,000 working-age adults once rules are enforced — the same apparatus, a different soil.
Why never a single score?: Layers do not add up (α = 0.001). An ecosystem is a profile read conditionally on its enforcement regime, and never above the urban module — 68.4% of composition variance is within countries.
How fast can we start?: A 45-minute scoping call, then a written proposal within five working days: scope, method, team, timeline, fee. Weekly progress syncs and a mid-mandate readout during execution.

Next step

Got a strategic question?

Tell us in two sentences. We come back within 48 hours with a scoping proposal.

Book a 45-min scoping call →Explore Expert Country reports

The observatory answers your strategic question.

Every mandate follows the COTEE orchestration cycle.

Read the soil before funding the seed

Find the modules

Couple, do not stack

Institutionalise what grew

Diagnosis · Roadmap · Impact

Diagnosis

Roadmap

Impact

Because the apparatus only pays where the rules are enforced.

1.3 → 6.4

68.4% within countries

81% architecture ahead

From scoping call to delivery.

Scoping call

Proposal

Execution

Delivery

What clients ask before signing.

Got a strategic question?

One email a month. The signals that matter.

One mission, three levers: build the science and practice of entrepreneurial ecosystems in Africa.