Disaster Resilience & Climate Change topic 1: Science and innovation for adaptation to climate change: from assessing costs, risks and opportunities to demonstration of options and practices

Topic description

Scope:

Specific challenge:

As the EU, the  Member States, Associated Countries and the EU Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs)  progress towards the development of appropriate responses for adapting to climate change, there is a pressing need for developing a coherent research and innovation agenda, to provide:

         The coordination and the clustering of research and innovation activities on climate change impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptation in different sectors, also in relation to long-term risk reduction from extreme weather events;

         A more standardised basis (including transferable, widely applicable tools and methods) for assessing potential climate change impacts, vulnerabilities, costs, benefits, risks and opportunities;

         A strengthened knowledge base, through a more coherent approach to the identification and assessment of the performance and impacts of different adaptation measures, with a view to prioritise relevant interventions;

         Support for the development of innovative adaptation and long term risk reduction options, fine-tuned to specific natural and socio-economic conditions across Europe, with the aim to protect and reduce the vulnerability of sensitive resources, economic sectors, green and technical infrastructure, and society from climate-change related threats.

Scope:Proposals must address one of the following (a,b):

a) Coordination and support actions [2014][1]

Proposals should aim to:

• Developa platform to organise consultations and facilitate dialogue among different stakeholder groups at the EU and Associated countries level and at different geographical scales, throughout the duration of Horizon 2020, paying due attention to, and establishing linkages with international developments in the field; as well as
• Support clustering and close cooperation among international, EU and nationally funded initiatives in the field of climate change adaptation, and disaster risk reduction, promote foresight and large-scale dissemination activities, and foster the science-policy interface across the EU.

The action is expected to proactively target coordination needs and requirements of end-users, such as the Commission services dealing with climate change adaptation, EU, national, regional and local authorities that manage a prospective research agenda in this field, as well as key actors that participate in the development and implementation of adaptation strategies and in the mainstreaming of adaptation requirements into sectoral plans.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between the range of 2 to 3 million euro would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Up to one proposal will be selected for funding.

b) Research and innovation actions [2014]

Proposals should aim to:

• Develop standardised methods to assess climate change impacts, vulnerabilities, and risks, and to identify and assess the performance of adaptation measures (technological and non-technological options). Methods should focus on long-term climate change and extreme events for European sectors of particular socio-economic and environmental significance, paying due consideration to uncertainty, and encompass indirect, cross-sectoral effects and cascade impacts, where relevant.
• Provide state-of-the-art decision support tools tailored to facilitate decision-making by different end-users (e.g. individuals, businesses, other private sector firms, local authorities and planners, governments), while developing adaptation plans and measures.

The ambition of the challenge suggests that proposals with a requested EC contribution in the range of €6 million to €8 million (or more) may be appropriate. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected impact:

a) Better coordination, dissemination and communication of research and innovation activities on disaster risk management, climate change adaptation and synergies among EU-funded (e.g. ClimateAdapt, Climate KIC, FP projects), Member State-funded (e.g. JPIs, national programmes) and international activities in the field (e.g. UNEP/PROVIA).

b) Improved and concise information for decision making (at both public and private sectors) on climate change impacts, disaster risks and relevant options to address them. Enhanced implementation in the medium-term of the EU Adaptation Strategy and national and local efforts towards climate-proofing of key European economic sectors and services, as well as of the EU Disaster Prevention Framework.

Type of action:

a) Coordination and support actions

b) Research and innovation actions

[1]               This activity directly aimed at supporting the development and implementation of evidence base for R&I policies and supporting various groups of stakeholders is excluded from the delegation to EASME and will be implemented by the Commission services.