Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AGORA (A Gathering place to cO-design and co-cReate Adaptation)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-07-01 bis 2025-12-31
Adaptation AGORA supports the objectives of the Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change by leveraging and step forwarding best practices, innovative approaches, policy instruments and governance mechanisms to engage communities and regions meaningfully and effectively in climate actions, accelerating and upscaling adaptation processes for building a climate resilient Europe. Pilot regions (Rome, Italy; Zaragoza, Spain; Dresden, Germany and Malmö, Sweden) constituted the co-production arena to co-design, co-develop and co-implement climate adaptation solutions. The project has developed a roadmap for transformational change and upscale of citizen engagement, for transferability of effective policy instruments and for ensuring long term legacy.Citizens civil society organizations, academics, experts, policy-makers, entrepreneurs, and other relevant actors were engaged in the co-design and co-creation of innovative and problem-oriented climate adaptation solutions that could be extensively adopted in Europe.
Furthermore, the project developed four information and communication tools (ICTs) creating a baseline to empower citizens in climate change adaptation processes. Additional cities, regions or organizations who wished to replicate the experiences were registered as “followers” , and they interacted directly with the project’s activities, supporting the process of creating ICT tools, and methodologies. The community of followers also took part in the webinar series, capacity building events, and contributed to providing key insights and feedback to validate the ICTs and work carried out within Adaptation AGORA.Following the great interest from the local communities, additional activities were carried out with new target audiences, expanding from the scope of the project to include non-previously addressed stakeholders such as prisoners, individuals with cerebral palsy or mental health workers. In this way, the project promoted democracy, climate justice, gender equality, equity, and fosters adaptive capacity and citizens’ empowerment to pro-actively support decision-making processes. The project has gained interest from international research institutions such as the Nomura Research Institute from Japan and international organizations as the Organization of American States, as well as being one of the few Horizon Europe Projects focusing on stakeholder engagement to present at the UN COP.
Furthermore, the project developed four information and communication tools (ICTs) creating a baseline to empower citizens in climate change adaptation processes. Additional cities, regions or organizations who wished to replicate the experiences were registered as “followers” , and they interacted directly with the project’s activities, supporting the process of creating ICT tools, and methodologies. The community of followers also took part in the webinar series, capacity building events, and contributed to providing key insights and feedback to validate the ICTs and work carried out within Adaptation AGORA.Following the great interest from the local communities, additional activities were carried out with new target audiences, expanding from the scope of the project to include non-previously addressed stakeholders such as prisoners, individuals with cerebral palsy or mental health workers. In this way, the project promoted democracy, climate justice, gender equality, equity, and fosters adaptive capacity and citizens’ empowerment to pro-actively support decision-making processes. The project has gained interest from international research institutions such as the Nomura Research Institute from Japan and international organizations as the Organization of American States, as well as being one of the few Horizon Europe Projects focusing on stakeholder engagement to present at the UN COP.
Adaptation AGORA has worked in five main areas or work packages (WP): understanding existing citizen engagement initiatives (WP1), testing and implementing methodologies in Pilots (WP2), developing ICTs (WP3), analyzing existing policies (WP4) and capacity building activities (WP5), with a communication framework (WP6) and overall operational, technical ethical and scientific support (WP7 and 8). A mapping of existing citizen engagement initiatives (WP1) and peer-learning workshops with experts provided insights to generate the methodologies implemented in inception workshops, focus groups and final workshops in each Pilot Region (WP2). Vulnerabilities and key factors were identified to contribute to climate change adaptation strategies' effectiveness, co-designing processes, and overall citizens' involvement.
The Pilots directly contributed to the regions and communities’ co-creation plans, e.g. in the case of Rome, supporting the Roma Piano Clima launched in 2024 and implemented in 2025. By undertaking research and testing innovative solutions, WP1 and WP2 experiences provided valuable input to ensure knowledge gaps and stakeholder needs were taken into consideration in the adequate creation of a living digital environment for knowledge sharing and co-production (WP3). The Community Hub is where best practices are shared and citizens interact with peers and experts; the Disinformation Academy, allows citizens to identify fake news and how to detect accurate sources; the Academy on Climate Data Risk and Tools, focusing on empowering citizens to learn how to use climate data; and the mobile App is a gamified manner to learn more about climate change.
Synergies with other projects to cross-reference methodologies, creating joint-capacity building events (WP5) to further support the cities and regions bridge the knowledge gap with citizens. The Adaptation AGORA project takes into consideration the ongoing social changes and the awareness that there is no “one size fits all” solution, hence the tasks within WP2 as well as WP5 took to heart creating adaptive events, activities and keeping track of the impact on citizens. A set of results and guidance to replicate these capacity building activities were published. With the interactions with various stakeholders in WP2 and WP5, and initiatives mapped in WP1, the project also analyzed the existing climate change adaptation policies in WP4. In addition, the project has established solid links with other EU funded projects in engaging citizens with joint activities. It also supported the Mission more broadly, actively participating in Thematic Working Groups.
The Pilots directly contributed to the regions and communities’ co-creation plans, e.g. in the case of Rome, supporting the Roma Piano Clima launched in 2024 and implemented in 2025. By undertaking research and testing innovative solutions, WP1 and WP2 experiences provided valuable input to ensure knowledge gaps and stakeholder needs were taken into consideration in the adequate creation of a living digital environment for knowledge sharing and co-production (WP3). The Community Hub is where best practices are shared and citizens interact with peers and experts; the Disinformation Academy, allows citizens to identify fake news and how to detect accurate sources; the Academy on Climate Data Risk and Tools, focusing on empowering citizens to learn how to use climate data; and the mobile App is a gamified manner to learn more about climate change.
Synergies with other projects to cross-reference methodologies, creating joint-capacity building events (WP5) to further support the cities and regions bridge the knowledge gap with citizens. The Adaptation AGORA project takes into consideration the ongoing social changes and the awareness that there is no “one size fits all” solution, hence the tasks within WP2 as well as WP5 took to heart creating adaptive events, activities and keeping track of the impact on citizens. A set of results and guidance to replicate these capacity building activities were published. With the interactions with various stakeholders in WP2 and WP5, and initiatives mapped in WP1, the project also analyzed the existing climate change adaptation policies in WP4. In addition, the project has established solid links with other EU funded projects in engaging citizens with joint activities. It also supported the Mission more broadly, actively participating in Thematic Working Groups.
The Adaptation AGORA Project achieved significant advancements in the co-creation and co-design of climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. Activities carried out within each of the pilot regions contributed to create and consolidate networks of local and regional stakeholders that had not previously worked together. With the pool of followers, the impact expanded beyond the four Pilots. Results were additionally validated by new target audiences: mental health experts, individuals with cerebral palsy and prisioners, complementing findings with the perspective of the needs from these stkaeholder groups.The project made major contributions to citizen engagement methodologies, enablers and barriers to co-create solutions for climate resilience, analysis of policy instruments to promote citizen empowerment, capacity building activities, and ICTs that are currently being used in other Horizon Europe, national and international projects. Interest and positive feedback from across the globe shows the relevance and applicability of the tools developed in the EU and internationally. .