Strengthening INternational Cooperation on climatE change REsearch

Project Information

SINCERE

Grant agreement ID: 776609

DOI

10.3030/776609

Project closed

EC signature date 31 October 2017

Start date 1 February 2018

End date 31 January 2022

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

Total cost

€ 2 209 920,43

EU contribution

€ 2 209 920,43

Coordinated by

SERVICE PUBLIC FEDERAL DE PROGRAMMATION POLITIQUE SCIENTIFIQUE
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SINCERE (Strengthening INternational Cooperation on climatE change REsearch)

Reporting period: 2021-02-01 to 2022-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The goal of SINCERE is to widen international climate change research cooperation activities on climate adaptation and mitigation, building on and further developing efforts and outcomes of the Joint Programming Initiative "Connecting Climate Knowledge for Europe" (JPI Climate).
The vision of JPI Climate is to actively inform and enable the transition to a low emission, climate resilient economy, society and environment that is aligned with Europe’s long-term climate policy objectives. JPI Climate proposes to develop and coordinate a pan-European research programming forum to provide useful climate knowledge and services for European and national climate strategies and to support the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Given that these are global challenges, it is crucial for European research organisations and funding bodies to operate beyond Europe’s borders while making the European Green Deal a reality. This also means identifying and/or strengthening research collaboration agendas and co-funding, especially with key partners in non-OECD countries.
More specifically, SINCERE focuses on:
• Expanding the permanent dialogue part of the JPI Climate objective to engage more countries, particularly the Central and Eastern European countries. SINCERE aims to expand the cooperation platform of JPI Climate to include non-European parties and development banks, financial and insurance institutions.
• Promoting the development, use, open access and availability of climate data and know-how on climate change research-based solutions to respond to and meet the goals defined by international policy agreements by increasing the impact and role of JPI Climate on related international negotiations UNFCCC/Paris agreement, the SDGs and the UN Sendai Framework.
• Contributing to building a 'Global Research Area' by opening JPI Climate to broader international cooperation, strengthening JPI Climate’s leadership and increasing its visibility and attractiveness as a research partner at the global level.
• Increasing the awareness of the larger public of the risks and opportunities of climate change and disaster risk reduction and implications for the SDGs, and in particular support the implementation of SDG13 in a creative and impactful way.
• Increasing the implementation of gender mainstreaming and monitoring in JPI Climate activities and pave the way to a structural continuum of this issue within JPI Climate though monitoring and information.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

SINCERE sets the base for the internationalisation of the specific research agenda's and an increased international opening of the JPI Climate network.
During the first reporting period, SINCERE widened its consortium and invited other partners to engage in the JPI-Climate process. SINCERE managed to raise the visibility of the project as well as JPI Climate through active involvement in networks and events as well as through the preparation of the strategic guiding document to identify international research networks, the preparation of a JPI -Climate Award, the support of JPI Climate activities related to societal transformation in the face of climate change and organisations of various workshops and meetings to diffuse the JPI-Climate and EU research agenda (WP2, 3, 4 and 5), and SINCERE and EU objectives in terms of climate, with a special focus on adaptation and services.

Collaboration is well established between SINCERE and the African Academy of Science network, the research agenda alignment initiated during the first period is further developed. Concerning the Flagship Action Latin-America (WP4), the first workshop took place in May 2019, in Helsinki. Face to face meeting foreseen in 2020 had to be postponed. As platform for the different JPI Climate action groups SINCERE defined the JPI-Climate Award which targets all research in these action groups.

We managed to connect the various work packages (WP1) through regular communication. However, during the second period the coordination faced issues related to staffing, but these are now resolved. An internal workspace was created to foster internal exchanges of documents (WP5). The COVID19 pandemic is a major hindrance for SINCERE as a CSA is about optimization of collaboration and coordination between relevant players and mainly implemented through interactions, meetings, workshop, talks during conference, actions that had to be postponed sine die.

The switch from face-to-face meeting to virtual meeting was slow but is now mastered especially for preparing the European Climate Change Adaptation conference ECCA 2021. Originally meant to be a contributor SINCERE took the full organization of ECCA 2021 over from the original host country that could not proceed. The COVID19 pandemic made the take-over more complex. ECCA 2021 is scheduled during the third period of the project.

SINCERE increased the visibility and valorisation of JPI-Climate research activities. The way of dissemination through different channels of the H2020 programme reached sometimes different networks and stakeholders' groups. What was done during the first period through organisation of events and booths at different events and conferences was achieved during the second period through series of webinars developed together with Climate Europe. SINCERE has set up a variety of dissemination tools (website, flyer, and video) and information targeting several specific audiences. To reach a broader public and inform it about the research supported in the framework of JPI-Climate, the partners further developed a strategy for the regular delivery of a JPI-Climate Award Competition.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

SINCERE lays the first steps of an effective widening of the JPI-Climate action range.

The identification and contact with new networks opened the Climate dialogue towards these other partners. The goal is to get more sectors and more actors of each sector involved in climate issues.
The added value of the Flagships is currently focused on the increased visibility for the JPI-Climate community but should be turned towards more specific actions within the Climate research management and Climate policy issues. Climate research networks are now identified for each Flagship action and specific research-related themes should be determined to further develop the Action more concretely. Flagship Africa is striving, Latin-American contacts are slower but yielded better visibility and participation in mid-2020.

The effective communication strategy of SINCERE strongly increased the visibility and presence of the JPI Climate community. During the second period the work focused on Policy support. These diffusion activities, including the Award, should also upscale the visibility of the results of the research that was organised by the JPI-Climate Member States.

The structure of SINCERE in a nutshell

Picture of the group involved in SINCERE at the Kick-off meeting