Europe defies climate change: Kick-off meeting of the TeRRIFICA project
The TeRRIFICA kick-off meeting has connected for the first time the members of eight institutions across Europe, and has provided an extensive overview of the project’s aims and objectives for the upcoming three years and a half. During the meeting, hosted by Wissenschaftsladen Bonn Monday and Tuesday 4th and 5th February, the different institutions have discussed the different phases of the project and sharpened thematic focuses, timelines, and strategies.
TeRRIFICA, standing for Territorial Responsible Research and Innovation fostering Innovative Climate Action, will foster competence for climate change adaptation in different European regions, specifically in Belarus, France, Germany, Poland, Serbia and Spain. The project will set up tailored roadmaps and key performance indicators for the implementation of the developed methodologies and climate change adaptation activities.
All participants have shared with their colleagues their role in the project, which included besides others thematic approaches, content definitions and implementation strategies, co-creation and stakeholder involvement, monitoring, validation and evaluation for the knowledge transfer and a communication and dissemination plan, amongst others.
The ACUP is part of the project consortium, together with 7 other European institutions, leading the communication of it. The ACUP will also be responsible for coordinating the pilot project to be carried out in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. Experts and groups of researchers from Catalan public universities will participate.
TeRRIFICA embedding the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Still, after years of tackling urgent issues of climate change, the adaptation to its consequences and impacts is a less considered topic. This comes along as a serious context for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) tools reaching out to the issue of climate action. Climate change and RRI are a crosscutting issue, playing on the same ground as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. TeRRIFICA will focus its territorial RRI approach on climate change adaptation, directly addressing specific Sustainable Development Goals, such as Quality Education, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Production and Consumption, Climate Action, Life on Land and Partnerships for the Goals.
The TeRRIFICA team met the following day to the kick-off meeting to celebrate the first reflective workshop, attended by 22 representatives of regional and national administration and policy, research institutes, companies, NGOs, universities and CSOs currently involved in climate change related topics in their countries.
This first workshop in Bonn addressed RRI and its meaning for climate action and adaptation. What are the drivers and barriers of implementation, risks, opportunities and challenges? How is the current situation on your country concerning climate adaptation actions? These and other issues were addressed to contribute to the identification of regional needs and priorities and the co-design of the climate change adaptation plans of TeRRIFICA.
One of the forthcoming activities organized by TeRRIFICA will be the 2nd TeRRIFICA Reflective Workshop, which will focus on indicators and will be hosted in July 2019 in Belgrade (Serbia).
Follow @TeRRIFICA_ on Twitter and get updates and more information about the project. The website and other means of communication will be launched in the coming months.
What is TeRRIFICA?
The EU funded project TeRRIFICA (Territorial Responsible Research and Innovation Fostering Innovative Climate Action) with its network partners in six regions of Europe will seek for best practice and identify the approaches that are already in place to adapt to climate change effects.
In a trans-disciplinary partnership, TeRRIFICA involves six European countries, bringing together three research institutions, three non-profit organisations, one public association of universities and one public institution for science promotion. TeRRIFICA is led by WILA Bonn (Bonn, Germany) and the TeRRIFICA consortium is composted by the Rhine-Waal University (Kleve, Germany), the Education for Sustainable Development Association (Minsk, Belarus), the Center for the Promotion of Science (Belgrade, Serbia), the University of Vechta (Germany), the Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan, Poland), Sciences Citoyennes (Paris, France) and the Catalan Association of Public Universities (Barcelona, Spain). The project is funded by the Horizon2020 programme of the European Commission.
Pictures
Photo album of the TeRRIFICA kick-off meeting
Photo album of the 1st TeRRIFICA reflective workshop
Contact
· TeRRIFICA Project Coordinator
Norbert Steinhaus: norbert.steinhaus@wilabonn.de
· TeRRIFICA Communication and Dissemination Manager
Marta Cayetano: marta@acup.cat
