Grant Opportunity to prepare and plan for Climate Resilience

Deadline: 27-Sep-22

The European Commission (EC) is offering grants for:

preparing and planning for climate resilience and the need for a better understanding of climate change related risks and
supporting at least 150 European regions and communities in developing their vision of a climate-resilient future and innovation pathways to reach it.

The successful proposal will develop new technologies addressing access to key climate data and information services; such technologies will use improved user-defined and user-friendly tools tailored to regional and community level applications for adaptation to climate change able to build climate resilience in all sectors/services involved; the focus will be on case-specific climatological and physical conditions critical for the areas mentioned in the Mission Implementation Plan.

Details

Therefore, proposals should address all of the following:

Set forth improved user-defined data manipulation tools that can be used, reused and further developed, thereby contributing to an ecosystem of readily available tools and integrated information services. The tools developed should be designed as a component of decision support tool for public authorities integrating socio-economic aspects and allowing them to assess risk-reduction benefits of various adaptation solutions across several regions.
Consider impacts of climate change on key community systems highlighted in the Mission Implementation Plan, across several climate regions and how their functioning might be affected by climate change induced risks.
Develop a gap-analysis of accessibility, usability, customization and adaptability of existing European relevant information (including climate, socio-economic, demographic information) services with respect to user needs at regional and community levels. Prepare and implement training and capacity building, adapted for non-experts local end-users (beyond the 5 regions where the tools are demonstrated) to support them in using or tailoring the tools developed by the project.
Identify data availability and data accessibility gaps, and overcome barriers and limitations of existing approaches. In particular, proposals are encouraged to take into account:
- Consistency in the definition of climate risk indicators in view of the Mission objectives and projects addressing climate change risks;
- Socio-economic data at the local level and integrating it to the tools and services developed or improved for regional and local end-users;
- The experience from the Sectoral Information System demonstrators of the Copernicus Climate Change Service and from relevant Horizon 2020 projects;
- Access to EU digital infrastructures;
- Destination Earth, European Open Science Cloud, Copernicus DIAS and GEOSS.
Address the provision of user-relevant climate change indicators linked to socio-economic and demographic data to public authorities and Mission end users.
Factor in the effect of multiple hazards (including complex, cascading and compound disasters) in support of the activities set out in the topic focused on the “Development of climate change risk assessments in European regions and communities based on a transparent and harmonised Climate Risk Assessment approach (HORIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-02-01).”
Give due regard to the Commission technical guidance on the climate proofing of infrastructure in the period 2021-2027, notably as regards climate resilience, the climate vulnerability and risk assessment, as well as the identification, economic and technical appraisal, and implementation of relevant adaptation measures.
Provide coordination between the targeted regions/communities with respect to their climate data needs, to identify overlaps, synergies and cost-sharing opportunities.
Ensure the solutions’ long-term viability through integration within the toolbox of the Climate Data Store and/or other operationally supported technical infrastructures.
Discuss with and engage local communities and all relevant stakeholders (e.g., experts, policy-makers etc.) in a given region, in knowledge-sharing and production, testing the technology itself and making sure all knowledge, relevant to climate resilience, is represented.

Funding Information

The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:

public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (lowvalue grant).

Expected Outcomes

Projects are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

Better access to, and transformation of, the already openly available climate data in the C3S Climate Data Store, Climate ADAPT and relevant Horizon 2020 projects or other initiatives (such as GEOSS) into user-relevant climate change services, in combination with locally sourced data and information, where available. Long-term safeguarding of developed solutions by integration in the operational infrastructure and services of the Climate Data Store should also be explored.
Beyond-state-of-the-art relevant information (including climate, socio-economic, demographic information) services and tools tailored to Mission users’ needs (decision makers, local and regional authorities and other end users), with customizable data-manipulation tools available for use and re-use.
Quality-controlled climate data services that the Mission could build upon, supported and maintained as customizable, user-oriented components of operationally supported EU services (such as the C3S). Projects might want to refer to, and follow guidance, from the project under the topic on “Supporting and standardising climate services”.
Tested FAIR data governance and management mechanisms that enable the sharing, community validation and use of locally sourced data (e.g. citizen-generated data) and information, in combination with authoritative data and information as part of the European Green Deal Data Space.
Demonstrated application in at least 5 EU regions or communities.