The SOTERIA project aims to advance innovative insurance solutions for climate change adaptation in different European regions and communities. To do so, SOTERIA will work through three main tracks forming the core of our approach: i) documenting best practice in relation to data, new insurance and robust enabling frameworks; ii) testing of some of these solutions; and iii) the creation of communities of practice for regions and insurance as legacy. We aim to help reducing the protection gap by documenting best practice and the testing of insurance products and services that reward proactive prevention measures while seeking to increase coverage through co-designed solutions. We will also consider the enabling framework that analyses the role of public sector modernisation and how to develop affordable insurance schemes that leave no one behind, through our Communities of Practice engaged in Climate Resilience society-insurance dialogues. SOTERIA will take these solutions from the levels of research to demonstration and testing with some at the level of pre-commercial procurement in at least three cases thanks to a network of three pilots and 5 satellites that span different geographical areas (and needs). The project legacy a set of best practice materials as well as a Community of Practice to support other regions interested to design and/or adopt innovative insurance solutions. SOTERIA will contribute to the wider goal of the Mission Adaptation to increase Europe’s resilience and preparedness to face unavoidable consequences of climate change by filling the gaps on insurance coverage for climate adaptation.

EDUCEN is a coordination and support action that will work on the complex interplay between culture(s) and disaster risk reduction, above all in the context of cities, to allow in particular formal and informal emergency responders, risk managers, the military, urban planners and planners at regional and national level to be better equipped to deal with elements of culture, and as a result to ensure highly competent disaster responses and increasing community resilience. It is our contention that disaster risk reduction policies and practices are intrinsically cultural as they emerge from and are therefore largely shaped by the interplay of cultures prevalent at both the community, organisational and institutional level. Therefore any endeavour aimed at improving disaster risk reduction efforts should be founded on a comprehensive understanding and appreciation of this interplay and more importantly of the influential role of culture on the way people prepare for, experience, respond, and recover from disasters. EDUCEN will achieve its objectives this by firstly allowing knowledge and understanding of culture(s) in light of disaster risk reduction to become accessible to relevant stakeholders and secondly by encouraging, enabling and sustaining multi-stakeholder dialogue through which academics, practitioners and communities can actively engage and share knowledge, expertise and experiences which will enable all to strengthen their capabilities and impact, but most importantly will allow for both formal and informal risk managers and planners and spatial planners emergency responders in cities to be better informed and guided. The final product will be a multi-level, multi-media handbook, including visuals, maps, written narratives, and videos to support disaster risk reduction professionals to better appraise relevant cultural aspects in their own ‘community of practice’ as well as in the environment where they intervene.

NAIAD aims to operationalise the insurance value of ecosystems to reduce the human and economic cost of risks associated with water (floods and drought) by developing and testing - with key insurers and municipalities - the concepts, tools, applications and instruments (business models) necessary for its mainstreaming. We will do this in detail for 8 demonstration sites (DEMOs) throughout Europe and develop tools and methods applicable and transferable across all of Europe. The assumption is that Natural Assurance Schemes can reduce risk, especially to drought and flooding, and this risk reduction can be assessed and incorporated within insurance schemes. NAIAD´s conceptual frame is based on three pillars: (i) to help build a resilience approach to risk management through nature based solutions, (ii) the operationalisation and testing of scientific methods using a source-to-sea in DEMOs, (iii) the uptake of nature based solutions that are cost-effective and provide environmental, social and economic benefits. Trans-disciplinarity and stakeholder engagement are at the core of NAIAD for two reasons: first, because the conceptual and assessment methodologies combine physical, social and cultural and economic aspects, integrated into tools and methods but second, and most importantly “road tested” and validated with the stakeholders and end users themselves at the DEMOs. NAIAD will contribute to providing a robust framework for assessing insurance value for ecosystem services by (i) enabling full operationalisation through improved understanding of ecosystem functionality and its insurance value at a broad range of scales in both urban and rural context; (ii) making explicit the links between ecosystem values and social risk perception; and (iii) the application of developed methods and tools in water management by relevant stakeholders, especially businesses, public authorities and utilities.

Recent studies from the IPCC indicate that Europe is particularly prone to increased risks of river and coastal floods, droughts resulting in water restrictions and damages from extreme weather such as heat events and wildfires. Evaluations also show a huge potential to reduce these risks with novel adaptation strategies. Researchers, innovators and incubators develop innovative products and services to reduce the increased climate change risks. Many of these innovations however hardly arrive at the markets. BRIGAID BRIdges the GAp for Innovations in Disaster resilience. BRIGAID's approach is supported by three pillars. (1) At first BRIGAID takes into account the geographical variability of climate-related hazards and their interaction with socio-economic changes, (2) BRIGAID establishes structural, on-going support for innovations that are ready for validation in field tests and real life demonstrations and (3) BRIGAID develops a framework that enables an independent, scientific judgement of the socio-technological effectiveness of an innovation. BRIGAID's objective is ambitious but achievable with strong consortium partners in EU, two Associated Countries and support from Overseas Territories. BRIGAID (a) brings actively together innovators and end-users in Communities of Innovation, resulting in increased opportunities for market-uptake; (b) contributes to the development of a technological and performance standards for adaptation options by providing a Test and Implementation Framework (TIF) and test facilities throughout Europe; (c) Improves innovation capacity and the integration of new knowledge by establishing an innovators network and (d) strengthens the competitiveness and growth of companies with the support of a dedicated business team. Finally BRIGAID develops a business models and market outreach to launch innovations to the market and secure investments in innovations beyond BRIGAID’s lifetime.

UP2030 aims to guide cities through the socio-technical transitions required to meet their climate neutrality ambitions. It will do so by enabling a quantum leap from a ´business as usual´, project-by-project decarbonisation approach to a vision-driven, strategy-based approach that is anchored on sound projects and renewed policy development. The approach uses urban planning and design as a vehicle to create better connected, more compact, net-zero neighbourhoods in the city pilots – i.e. neighbourhoods that promote liveability and, through designing with intent, promote mitigation action. Unlike fragmented innovation processes that focus on the deployment of a specific solution to achieve incremental progress, UP2030 proposes that cities should themselves be at the centre of the innovation approach to drive transformative change. The project develops the 5UP methodological framework that supports cities in (i) UP-dating those policies, codes, regulations that need to be left behind to make room for the new vision (ii) UP-skilling, through building the capacities of the entire city stakeholder ecosystem that shall deliver actions (iii) UP-grading, through the development of solution prototypes (digital and physical) at selected neighbourhoods, (iv) UP-scaling to achieve city-wide impact by shaping the enabling governance arrangements and matching project portfolios to financial resources, and (v) UP-taking, by engaging with the Mission and sharing best practices across European cities. Inclusive participation is key throughout the project’s full cycle of activities so that real needs of communities are reflected in the city-specific visions, and co-designed interventions maximise delivery of co-benefits. As such, UP2030 will (a) have a measured positive impact on spatial justice in the pilots, and (b) give the opportunity to citizens to participate in the transition by becoming agents of change themselves through their sustainable behavioural shifts.