Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RESIST (Regions for climate change resilience through Innovation, Science and Technology)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-01-01 bis 2025-06-30
The EU’s strategy on climate change adaptation (CCA) calls for measures that are smart, swift and more systemic. In line with that, the adaptation actions of the RESIST project will increase resilience and accelerate the transformation of climate-vulnerable European regions. It will do this through the implementation of four large-scale demonstrations of resilient innovations and transfer of know-how and solutions to eight twinning regions. Through quintuple helix partnerships that involve academia-business-government-public working towards sustainable environment, the project promotes a participatory approach to resilience. RESIST will enhance readiness for uptake for more than 100 new CCA solutions, provide novel regional measures and policy instruments and impact at least 22 million citizens.
WP1 has laid the foundation for the further development of CCA innovations by performing the needs assessment for 12 regions and building the transfer methodology to twins. Graphical Digital Twins (GDT) framework has progressed from early technical development to the delivery of fully operational, region-specific GDTs supported by a robust user onboarding framework. The Digital Shepherd has significantly enhanced the usability and inclusivity of the GDT, ensuring wider access and engagement among regional stakeholders. Public demonstrations, conducted with local partners, have fostered regional ownership and capacity-building. The successful roll-out across the first Large-Scale Demonstrator (LSD) regions sets a strong precedent for the forthcoming implementation in the remaining e LSDs. The progress made in developing the repository of innovative solutions for CCA allows to discover and evaluate the 104 solutions currently described through the Graphic User Interface. Through the repository regional and local implementers' experiences can be exchanged, promoting them towards a larger public.
WP2 focused on a dedicated mutual-learning scheme for knowledge-sharing and future replication of climate change adaptations and innovations. The series of webinars with entrepreneurial ecosystems have been conducted aiming to ensure a tailored and impactful experience for the participating regions. Then first exploitation sessions with the LSDs, by adopting a collaborative approach led to the characterisation of key exploitable results, and the selection of results with the highest potential for uptake aimed at supporting the exploitation and scalability of the RESIST key results and CCA solutions.
WP3 focused on demonstrating innovations in the LSDs and Twinning regions. Significant progress in demonstrating CCA innovations has been achieved. Building on the foundation established in RP1, the focus has shifted towards operationalising the solutions transfer processes and aligning regional implementation activities with the overarching project goals. In addition to the planned initial transfers from LSDs to their paired twinning regions, RESIST allowed for broader inter-LSDT exchanges. This expanded flexibility enabled regions to access solutions and expertise beyond their designated partnerships, particularly where there was a clear relevance or benefit to local CCA challenges. Overall, this period reflects a mature phase of regional cooperation, with regions increasingly acting as both providers and receivers of solutions based on relevance rather than predefined roles. This dynamic and demand-driven approach reinforces RESIST's commitment to mutual learning, regional empowerment, and scalable climate adaptation across diverse European contexts. The 12 climate-vulnerable RESIST regions have tangibly advanced the CCA solutions that are being tested in their regional ecosystems. This includes the technical developments supported by overarching engagement and collaboration activities with regional and national ecosystems represented by the quintuple helix stakeholders, including vulnerable population groups. While the specific transfers of CCA innovations across the RESIST regions are presented as:
- South-West Finland is transferring three key solutions within its LSDT: the "Blue-Green Factor," a policy tool to promote urban green infrastructure, and the "Cost-Benefit Analysis of NBS", which were adopted by both Normandy and Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, while the "Raingarden Catalogue" was taken up by Normandy. Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, although being a twinning region, contributed to cross-cluster transfer by sharing its "Guidance on Hydrological and Hydraulic Modelling" with Zemgale, enhancing that region’s flood resilience planning.
- Central Denmark is facilitating the transfer of multiple tools both beyond its original settings. It is sharing the "IoT Loggers" solution, used for groundwater monitoring, with Zemgale, while also transferring the "BEST Adapt" socio-economic decision-support tool to Vesterålen. Additionally, Central Denmark’s "Pathfinder on XR Simulations for Stakeholder Involvement" was adopted by both Vesterålen and Blekinge, further promoting immersive stakeholder engagement practices.
- Catalonia is transferring its "Argos Early-Warning System" and the "Citizen Participatory Toolkit" to Baixo Alentejo and Puglia and is additionally providing the "Site-Specific Warnings" tool to Puglia, thereby enhancing public risk awareness and emergency planning capacities in those territories.
- Central Portugal is contributing to cross-cluster transfer. Its flagship solution, "AIGP – Integrated Areas for Landscape Management," was adopted by Extremadura and Baixo Alentejo. This solution aims to promote sustainable landscape management in fire-prone areas through collective governance and territorial strategies.
WP4 progressed in establishing the foundations to measure and maximize social impacts of the LSDs through a Transformative Social Innovation Strategy and Social Impact Assessment. The work conducted under communication activities reported achievements that are above initially set KPIs highlighting strong ongoing interest in regional updates and project content. The Catalogue of Activities for the Virtual Interactive Exhibit is under development and will be presented to the 12 regions in 2025, while integration of Graphical Digital Twin visualisations and simulations are expected to provide immersive experiences, helping the public understand regional climate challenges and their potential future impacts.
WP5 contributed with a significant number of measures to ensure effective communication and exchange of information between the partners and these measures brought fruitful outcomes. A strong message was placed forward to showcase RESIST to policymakers at the EU/national/regional levels what includes exchanges with OECD, NATO, European Commission and JRC.
WP2 focused on a dedicated mutual-learning scheme for knowledge-sharing and future replication of climate change adaptations and innovations. The series of webinars with entrepreneurial ecosystems have been conducted aiming to ensure a tailored and impactful experience for the participating regions. Then first exploitation sessions with the LSDs, by adopting a collaborative approach led to the characterisation of key exploitable results, and the selection of results with the highest potential for uptake aimed at supporting the exploitation and scalability of the RESIST key results and CCA solutions.
WP3 focused on demonstrating innovations in the LSDs and Twinning regions. Significant progress in demonstrating CCA innovations has been achieved. Building on the foundation established in RP1, the focus has shifted towards operationalising the solutions transfer processes and aligning regional implementation activities with the overarching project goals. In addition to the planned initial transfers from LSDs to their paired twinning regions, RESIST allowed for broader inter-LSDT exchanges. This expanded flexibility enabled regions to access solutions and expertise beyond their designated partnerships, particularly where there was a clear relevance or benefit to local CCA challenges. Overall, this period reflects a mature phase of regional cooperation, with regions increasingly acting as both providers and receivers of solutions based on relevance rather than predefined roles. This dynamic and demand-driven approach reinforces RESIST's commitment to mutual learning, regional empowerment, and scalable climate adaptation across diverse European contexts. The 12 climate-vulnerable RESIST regions have tangibly advanced the CCA solutions that are being tested in their regional ecosystems. This includes the technical developments supported by overarching engagement and collaboration activities with regional and national ecosystems represented by the quintuple helix stakeholders, including vulnerable population groups. While the specific transfers of CCA innovations across the RESIST regions are presented as:
- South-West Finland is transferring three key solutions within its LSDT: the "Blue-Green Factor," a policy tool to promote urban green infrastructure, and the "Cost-Benefit Analysis of NBS", which were adopted by both Normandy and Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, while the "Raingarden Catalogue" was taken up by Normandy. Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, although being a twinning region, contributed to cross-cluster transfer by sharing its "Guidance on Hydrological and Hydraulic Modelling" with Zemgale, enhancing that region’s flood resilience planning.
- Central Denmark is facilitating the transfer of multiple tools both beyond its original settings. It is sharing the "IoT Loggers" solution, used for groundwater monitoring, with Zemgale, while also transferring the "BEST Adapt" socio-economic decision-support tool to Vesterålen. Additionally, Central Denmark’s "Pathfinder on XR Simulations for Stakeholder Involvement" was adopted by both Vesterålen and Blekinge, further promoting immersive stakeholder engagement practices.
- Catalonia is transferring its "Argos Early-Warning System" and the "Citizen Participatory Toolkit" to Baixo Alentejo and Puglia and is additionally providing the "Site-Specific Warnings" tool to Puglia, thereby enhancing public risk awareness and emergency planning capacities in those territories.
- Central Portugal is contributing to cross-cluster transfer. Its flagship solution, "AIGP – Integrated Areas for Landscape Management," was adopted by Extremadura and Baixo Alentejo. This solution aims to promote sustainable landscape management in fire-prone areas through collective governance and territorial strategies.
WP4 progressed in establishing the foundations to measure and maximize social impacts of the LSDs through a Transformative Social Innovation Strategy and Social Impact Assessment. The work conducted under communication activities reported achievements that are above initially set KPIs highlighting strong ongoing interest in regional updates and project content. The Catalogue of Activities for the Virtual Interactive Exhibit is under development and will be presented to the 12 regions in 2025, while integration of Graphical Digital Twin visualisations and simulations are expected to provide immersive experiences, helping the public understand regional climate challenges and their potential future impacts.
WP5 contributed with a significant number of measures to ensure effective communication and exchange of information between the partners and these measures brought fruitful outcomes. A strong message was placed forward to showcase RESIST to policymakers at the EU/national/regional levels what includes exchanges with OECD, NATO, European Commission and JRC.
The outputs will be reported in RP3 in a form of scientific outputs, demonstration, commercialisation and green investments generation.