REGILIENCE aims to foster the adoption and wide dissemination of regional climate resilience pathways, following a demand-driven approach and bearing in mind the expertise and knowledge acquired, as well as the solutions available from Innovation Packages and other sources. It will implement the LC-GD-1-3-2020 RIA project results on the Innovation Packages. REGILIENCE will provide coordination by developing a needs survey covering the 50 most vulnerable regions in the EU, which will be shared and matched with Innovation Package projects, 2 citizen surveys and the development of an indicator set for regional resilience, including its testing. We will furthermore review and foster synergies of 30 online platforms to improve their performance and usability for regions and communities. In terms of support, REGILIENCE will provide wide dissemination of the solutions and approaches within networks, regional authorities and key stakeholders, including civil society organisations and citizens. Overall, we plan for almost 700 specific activities with an estimated audience of 100,000 individuals, including 8 large network events, 52 workshops/webinars, 30 twinning, 300 helpdesk, 10 testing, and 40 media activities, amongst others. These aim to share experiences, learn from failure, provide guidance and disseminate knowledge and tools which will be developed by REGILIENCE, such as the Resilience Fundamentals Course, a citizen Resilience Scan Tool, information about resilience funding and financing, including recommendations for the inclusion of climate resilience in the national and regional plans for the EU Recovery Package and the Multiannual Finance Framework, on overcoming barriers and obstacles, maladaptation and the running of 10 tests for innovative public-private partnership approaches. Complementary to wide dissemination, we plan to facilitate the replication of Innovation Packages in 10 additional vulnerable and low-capacity regions.

The goal of UrbanAIR is to develop a new digital twin that supports decision-makers in urban areas to deal with urban design dilemmas in atmospheric heat and air quality to maximise the health and socio-economic well-being of its citizens affected by climate change. It will provide critical tools for climate adaptation and hazard control through urban design and planning, including very high-resolution model components of the urban atmosphere. UrbanAIR is designed by a consortium that covers the full value chain to revolutionize digital twin platforms by starting from the perspective of the end user. Through co-creation with the end users and a balanced evaluation of the decision criteria, the overall objective of UrbanAIR is to yield a dynamic, user-friendly infrastructure integrated into the Destination Earth infrastructure that empowers municipalities and industries to face urgent urban climate risks. The scales in the atmospheric models in UrbanAIR cover the full range from the regional to the neighbourhood level. This innovative multiscale approach is achieved through the development of software interfaces for the modular coupling of atmospheric models. AI-based emulators allow for the acceleration of these computationally expensive models, which, together with the application of advanced data assimilation techniques, allows the quantification of risks and uncertainties for the UrbanAIR scenarios. Corresponding behavioural models simulate the human response to changes in climate and associated hazards. The resulting scenarios form the input to the objective evaluation of the criteria for decision-making. With these science-based tools for scenario simulation of natural and human behaviour, reliable risk assessment, and balanced decision analysis, UrbanAIR will develop tools and the infrastructure to support decision-makers in cities. This will pave the way for effective climate adaptation by developing tools for a safer, healthier, and more resilient future.

This FPA provides comprehensive programming and support for the European Commission’s Mission of 100 Climate-neutral and Smart Cities by 2030. It builds on the NetZeroCities (NZC) project, coordinated by CKIC. Combined, these two initiatives set out actions as follows: (a) Create and operate a Cities Mission Platform as a ‘one-stop-shop’ to access the expertise, capabilities, services, and solutions necessary to achieve climate neutrality. This Platform will provide tailored and intensive support to cities participating in the Mission and will ensure open access to the knowledge and resources of the Platform. (b) Help all Mission Cities with the co-creation and use of Climate City Contracts (CCC) to enable an ambitious pursuit of the goal of climate neutrality by 2030. This FPA expressly seeks to ensure all Mission Cities are supported and builds directly on the initial scope of NZC. In addition, support will be offered to additional cities seeking to follow closely the Mission. (c) Assist Mission cities in the development of tailor-made investment plans, project preparation and finance for the cities participating in the Mission; (d) Deliver substantial resources to Mission cities for ongoing research and innovation activities critical to achieving climate neutrality by 2030. This support will be in the form of ‘pilot’ funding to test and demonstrate actions needed to deliver climate neutral outcomes. This pilot activity will work together with the Platform and CCC processes in the cities, operationalizing emerging knowledge and insights about how cities can achieve the Mission objectives; and (e) Ensure ongoing monitoring and evaluation of cities in their progress toward climate neutrality and deploy peer-based learning to ensure full appropriability of the result from the Mission. The FPA periods extends through 2027 and provides for two planned Specific Grant Agreement (SGA) phases, where a precise plan, targets and metrics will be established.

Systems Innovation Approach (SIA) addresses the growing complexity, interdependencies and interconnectedness of modern societies and economies, focusing on the functions of the cross-sectoral system as a whole and on the variety of actors. The Climate Innovation Window (CIW) is the EU reference innovations marketplace for climate adaptation technologies. ARSINOE shapes the pathways to resilience by bringing together SIA and CIW, to build an ecosystem for climate change adaptation solutions. Within the ARSINOE ecosystem, pathways to solutions are co-created and co-designed by stakeholders, who can then select either existing CIW technologies, or technologies by new providers (or a combination) to form an innovation package. This package may be designed for implementation to a specific region, but its building blocks are transferable and re-usable; they can be re-adapted and updated. In this way, the user (region) gets an innovation package consisting of validated technologies (expanding the market for CIW); new technologies implemented in the specific local innovation package get the opportunity to be validated and become CIW members, while the society (citizens, stakeholders ) benefits as a whole. ARSINOE applies a three-tier, approach: (a) using SIA it integrates multi-faceted technological, digital, business, governance and environmental aspects with social innovation for the development of adaptation pathways to climate change for specific regions; (b) it links with CIW to form innovation packages by matching innovators with end-users/regions; (c) it fosters the ecosystem sustainability and growth with cross-fertilization and replication across regions and scales, at European level and beyond, using specific business models, exploitation and outreach actions. The ARSINOE approach is show-cased in 9 widely varied demonstrators, as a proof-of-concept with regards to its applicability, replicability, potential and efficacy.

Agriculture is the foundation of the livelihoods of billions of people worldwide, including African rural and urban households, farming communities, and cities. However, weather and climate risks have increased, creating a need for better access to climate and weather information, soil water management, insurance, and other climate-agricultural services. Although some services exist, they are often separated and follow a top-down information provision that operates on a national scale. SAFE4ALL aims to address the interconnected issues of climate change, food security, ecosystem and disaster management, and migration in Africa by providing user-centred climate services. It will innovate and bundle affordable, and scalable services that include location-specific information to meet the needs of end-users in Kenya, Ghana and Zimbabwe. Three co-creation case studies will be organized in these vulnerable African countries, engaging with small-scale farming communities, municipalities, and cities. SAFE4ALL will coordinate efforts from governments, civil society, academia, and international organizations to mobilize the capacity of end-users, build food security and resilience, promote sustainable agriculture, and provide social safety nets to affected localities. Specific objectives include establishing a collaborative, co-creation, and engagement platform for the prioritization and co-development of needs-based climate services, identifying adaptation challenges, requirements, and enabling factors and complementing policies in adapting to the wider socio-economic environment, and exploring and harnessing existing services to improve the uptake and effectiveness of climate services and develop sustainable business and implementation models for services. The outcomes aim to manage migration to cities by ensuring that communities are better equipped to adapt and cope with the impacts of climate change while enhancing food security in a rapidly changing world.