Workshop lays foundations for impactful climate action
The EU-funded Unite.WIDENING project recently hosted a workshop to present the possibilities of participating in programmes and calls taking place under the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. Launched in January 2024, the project is working to enhance scientific excellence and maximise knowledge impact by promoting collaboration between universities and partners from diverse regions across Europe. The ‘EU Mission Adaptation to Climate Change’ workshop was held on 18 June 2024 at Unite.WIDENING project partner Wrocław University of Science and Technology in Poland. It included a round table discussion on the Mission Adaptation in widening countries, covering calls, projects, support and strategies. Workshops were also held to identify strategic research areas relating to the green transformation, with an emphasis on climate change adaptation.
Proposed actions
The workshop resulted in several actions. These included raising awareness of climate change, reducing fossil fuel use, increasing climate adaptations in buildings and engaging companies from specific sectors, such as biotech. A Unite.WIDENING news item also reported several recommendations: “the need for cross-cutting calls for all Missions, combining different sources of funding, including national and regional levels, support for the preparation of applications, implementing a solution used already in Spain: vouchers for consulting services, including pre-screening, exchanging information and best practices for supporting applications with Unite! partners, especially those from widening countries (Portugal) and increasing the amount of grants (‘grants for grants’) available for the preparation of project applications.” The workshop was the third event held by the project since its launch at the start of 2024. It was preceded by the ‘Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters’ conference held at Unite.WIDENING project coordinator University of Lisbon’s Técnico Lisboa in March, and the ‘Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities European EU Mission’ workshop held at project partner Politecnico di Torino, Italy in May. The March conference highlighted the importance of the blue economy for Portugal, alongside the need to strengthen collaborative research in key areas. At the May workshop on climate-neutral cities, discussions revolved around the current EU policies, programmes and open calls, as well as the concrete outcomes of the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission and additional considerations on budget issues and challenges. The event also included presentations on regional and local policies, with a key focus on the city of Turin, as well as an overview of research groups, hubs and networks engaged in making cities greener. Commenting on the Unite.WIDENING (Raise excellence in R&S&I in HEI for widening countries) project’s May workshop, Politecnico di Torino Prof. Roberto Zanino stated: “The Unite! partners have shown today to be very active in the multi-disciplinary arena of the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission and, indeed, 7 out of the 9 Unite! cities where they are located are among the 100 selected cities. Unite! could therefore eventually provide a very natural framework for sharing the experiences of the different cities, as their contribution to the Mission proceeds and evolves. Continuing on a line of collaboration with the Municipalities, which was inaugurated at the Torino Dialogue in 2022, we have now proposed to the Unite! Steering Committee the idea of planning an event on the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission at the first 2025 Dialogue in Barcelona.” For more information, please see: Unite.WIDENING project website
Keywords
Unite.WIDENING, climate, climate change, climate-neutral, city, EU Mission, climate change adaptation