Urban areas and traffic infrastructure linking such areas are highly vulnerable to climate change. Smart use of existing climate intelligence can increase urban resilience and generate added value for businesses and society at large. Based on the results of FP7 climate change, future internet and crisis preparedness projects (SUDPLAN, ENVIROFI, CRISMA) with an average TRL of 4-5 and following an agile and user-centred design process, end-users, purveyors and providers of climate intelligence will co-create an integrated Climate Services Information System (CSIS) to integrate resilience into urban infrastructure. As a result, CLARITY will provide an operational eco-system of cloud based climate services to calculate and present the expected effects of CC-induced and -amplified hazards at the level of risk, vulnerability and impact functions. CLARITY will offer what-If decision support functions to investigate the effects of adaptation measures and risk reduction options in the specific project context, and allow the comparison of alternative strategies. Four demonstration cases will showcase CLARITY climate services in different climatic, regional, infrastructure and hazard contexts in Italy, Sweden, Austria and Spain; focusing on the planning and implementation of urban infrastructure development projects. CLARITY will provide the practical means to include the effects of CC hazards and possible adaptation and risk management strategies into planning and implementation of such projects, focusing on increasing CC resilience. Decision makers involved in these projects will be empowered to perform climate proof and adaptive planning of adaptation and risk reduction options.

According to the EU’s Climate Adaptation Strategy (COM(2021) 82), “improving knowledge and managing uncertainty” is key for realising the vision of a climate neutral and climate-resilient Union, as “Climate change is having such a pervasive impact that our response to it must be systemic”. Thus, there is an urgent need for an integrated approach for an enhanced understanding of the interaction, complementarity and trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation measures, especially regarding the expected increase in region-al mean temperature, precipitation and changing soil moisture (IPCC AR6 WG I). Furthermore, this under-standing and knowledge needs to be provided to a broad audience to support local authorities in EU partner countries in developing regional programmes. KNOWING aims to develop a modelling framework to help understand and quantify the interactions between impacts and risks of climate change, mitigation pathways and adaptation strategies. The framework will be used to assess thAdvancing climate science and further broadening and deepening the knowledge base is essential to inform the societal transition towards a climate neutral and climate resilient society by 2050, as well as towards a more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target by 2030. There is a need for research that furthers our understanding of past, present and expected future changes in climate and its implications on ecosystems and society, closing knowledge gaps, and develops the tools that support policy coherence and the implementation of effective mitigation and adaptation solutions. Currently, there is a lack of knowledge of the Earth system and the ability to predict and project its changes under different natural and socio-economic drivers, especially regarding complex interrelations, rebound effects and behavioural aspects. Therefore, a holistic, system-aware and behaviour centred approach is needed to identify and implement realistic and effective climate mitigation pathways.

MAIA applies to the subtopic a) of the HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01-03 Topic. MAIA will act as an impact multiplier by providing social structures, technological and outreach activities to accompany, potentiate and help maximise the impact of climate research projects funded under Horizon Europe. MAIA constitute the response from a group of coordinators and core partners from seven H2020 precursor projects in climate change research (BINGO, BRIGAID, CLARITY, Connecting Nature, DRIVER+, PLACARD and RESCCUE). In these projects, driven by the EC’s advice to identify synergies and spark collaboration, we liaised and detected a clear need for increased connectivity and a more robust approach to synergies management as means to unlock more meaningful and impact-oriented interactions. MAIA pivots around connectivity as a key enabling factor for an effective outreach. Therefore, we are envisioning specific actions for enhancing i) the connectivity of existing communities (consolidation and activation of a Pan-European community of problem owners, solution providers, and enablers); ii) the connectivity of knowledge and technological infrastructure (creation of the MAIA Portal); and iii) the connectivity of the EU climate research (coordinating an EU climate change research Cluster). Communication and Dissemination activities of the EU climate change research projects will be reinforced and amplified by our active outreach campaign, aiming towards the democratisation of climate knowledge. Moreover, MAIA develops a comprehensive cross-project exploitation-support programme. MAIA also addresses awareness raising, the strengthening of the science-policy and science-civil society interfaces, and the support for climate action and sustainable behaviours through several actions dealing with active dialogue supported through community engagement activities and the use of SSH.