Research projects

2D4D – Disruptive Digitalization for Decarbonization

Digitalization will fundamentally change all sectors of the European economy in the next decades. At the same time, the EU is committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. These two transformation will undoubtedly affect each other, but the extent to which they will be mutually supporting is currently unknown. Most importantly, there is a danger that the digital transformation will delay the progress towards a net-zero carbon economy. The EU-funded 2D4D project aims at ensuring that the digital transformation is not a barrier to decarbonisation, rather an enabler. The project will identify and measure the decarbonisation consequences of three disruptive digitalisation technologies in hard-to-decarbonise sectors: additive manufacturing in industry, mobility-as-a-service in transportation, and AI in buildings. The project will produce a distinctive data collection to examine the technical and socioeconomic potential of these technologies, enhance decarbonisation narratives and ensure that digital technology supports energy transition.

Energy, Health, Jobs & Growth.

ACQUAOUNT – Adapting to Climate change by QUantifying optimal Allocation of water resOUrces and socio-ecoNomic inTerlinkages

Agriculture is by far the most water demanding sector in the Mediterranean and a sustainable use of water, combined with economic growth, cannot be achieved without improving irrigation efficiency and water productivity. The current heavy depletion of water sources is leading to water scarcity and degradation, deterioration of ecosystem services, conflicts with domestic and industrial uses and, in general, it poses limitations to economic growth. These trends will be exacerbated by CC. The ACQUAOUNT project aims to improve IWRM and sustainable irrigation through the deployment of innovative tools, smart water services and solutions, for public and private use, while contributing to climate resilience.

Future Earth, Global Policy, Jobs & Growth, Water, Food and Land Use.

AdJUST – ADVANCING THE UNDERSTANDING OF CHALLENGES, POLICY OPTIONS AND MEASURES TO ACHIEVE A JUST EU ENERGY TRANSITION

AdJUST is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme. and carried out by a transdisciplinary European consortium consisting of 9 EU partners, 2 UK associated partners and other 11 EU associated partners. The objectives of AdJUST are to achieve a step change in societal understanding of the distributive repercussions of the transition to climate neutrality, and to identify effective and actively-supported policy interventions to accompany climate action so that no-one is left behind.

Energy, Global Policy, Jobs & Growth, Migrations & Inequalities.

AdriaClim – Climate change information, monitoring and management tools for adaptation strategies in Adriatic coastal areas

The main objective of AdriaClim is to improve climate resilience in the cooperation area, by increasing the capacity to develop new climate adaptation plans and update existing ones and develop mitigation strategies based on high resolution, more accurate and reliable climate information (observations and integrated modeling) focussed on the coastal and marine areas (threatened by risks such as sea level rise, sea temperature and salinity anomalies, coastal erosion and salinization of freshwater) and related economic sectors and ecosystem services. AdriaClim aims at developing an Adriatic scale regional plus local scale for each Pilot integrated information systems composed by hydro-meteo-marine climatological databases (model scenarios and observation) and knowledge-based tools (e.g indicators) for advanced dynamical implementation of regional climate adaptation plans relevant and accessible for entire the Programme area and Countries.

Cities & Coasts, Future Earth, Jobs & Growth, Ocean.

AGORA – A Gathering place to cO-design and co-cReate Adaptation

AGORA will support the overall objectives of the Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change by leveraging and step forwarding best-practices, innovative approaches, policy instruments and governance mechanisms to meaningfully and effectively engage communities and regions in climate actions, accelerating and upscaling adaptation process for building a climate resilient Europe. It will promote democracy, climate justice, gender equality, equity, and foster adaptive capacity and citizens’ empowerment to pro-actively support decision-making processes.

Cities & Coasts, Energy, Future Earth, Global Policy, Health, Jobs & Growth, Migrations & Inequalities, Ocean, Water, Food and Land Use.

AGRITECH – National Research Centre for Agricultural Technologies

The National Center for the Development of New Technologies in Agriculture (Agritech) is based on the use of enabling technologies for the sustainable development of agri-food production, with the aim of promoting adaptation to climate change, reducing the environmental impact in the agrifood sector, the development of marginal areas, and to guarantee safety, traceability and security of the supply chains. The project is worth around 350 million euros, of which 320 million to be paid by the PNRR and involves 28 universities, 5 research centers, and 18 companies. The Center is structured in Hub&Spoke, with the University of Naples Federico II responsible for the national hub and 9 different spokes in the thematic areas: Plant, animal and microbial genetic resources and adaptation to climatic changes Crop Health: a multidisciplinary system approach to reduce the use of agrochemicals Enabling technologies and sustainable strategies for the smart management of agricultural systems and their environmental impact Multifunctional and resilient agriculture and forestry systems for the mitigation of climate change risks Sustainable productivity and mitigation of environmental impact in livestock systems Management models to promote sustainability and resilience of agricultural systems Integrated models for the development of marginal areas to promote multifunctional production systems enhancing agroecological and socio-economic sustainability New models of circular economy in agriculture through waste valorization and recycling New technologies and methodologies for traceability, quality, safety, measurements and certifications to enhance the value and protect the typical traits in agri-food chains.

Future Earth, Water, Food and Land Use.

AQP-2, Assessment of climate risks and vulnerabilities of AQP Water System

Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on the water resources management of Southern Italy, due to the generalized increase in temperatures entailing changes in the seasonality of precipitation and hydro-climatic budget. Also, the possible increase in the frequency of extreme events could have a negative effect on soil erosion and sediment transport, causing a deterioration of surface water quality. On the other hand, sea level rise could negatively affect the salinization rate of coastal aquifers. These phenomena could lead, in a future scenario, to a condition where the availability of freshwater resources (with adequate quality and quantity parameters) could not match anymore the demand for civil, industrial and irrigation purposes. Such a condition could be exacerbated even more by an increase in drinking and agricultural water needs.  In this context, Acquedotto Pugliese S.p.A. has commissioned a study to understand and quantitatively assess the perils induced by climate change on water scarcity-related issues, in order to define an adaptation strategy and implement countermeasures. Partners Acquedotto Pugliese S.p.A.  

Future Earth, Water, Food and Land Use.

AtlantECO – Atlantic ECOsystems assessment, forecasting & sustainability

The EU-funded AtlantECO project aims to develop and apply a novel, unifying framework that provides knowledge-based resources for a better understanding and management of the Atlantic Ocean and its ecosystem services. AtlantECO will engage with citizens and actors from the industry and policy sectors in order to stimulate responsible behaviour and Blue Growth. The project focuses on three pillars of research: microbiomes, plastic and the plastisphere, and seascape connectivity. In pursuit of this goal, AtlantECO is bringing together experts and pioneers from Europe, South America and South Africa with the relevant resources, knowledge and experience.

Future Earth, Health, Jobs & Growth, Ocean.

BID – Building an inclusive identity to fight inequality

The project studies economic and racial/ethnic inequality by analyzing the determinants of individuals’ willingness to redistribute in favor of disadvantaged people. Through a multi-disciplinary, quali-quantitative approach, the project will test the effectiveness of measure centered on the role of identity aimed at improving the attitude towards redistribution and, as such, at reducing inequality. The scope of the project embraces economic, psychological and sociological perspectives on the perception of economic and racial/ethnic inequality, and grounds on multifaceted approaches and literature about redistribution and identity. 

Migrations & Inequalities.

Blue-Cloud 2026 | A federated European FAIR and Open Research Ecosystem for oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters

The Blue-Cloud 2026 project builds on the existing pilot Blue-Cloud project (Oct 2019 – Sep 2022) and it evolves its pilot Blue-Cloud ecosystem into a federated European Ecosystem to deliver FAIR and Open Data and analytical services instrumental for deepening research of oceans, the EU sea, coastal and inland waters. It develops a thematic marine extension to European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) for accessible web-based science, serving the needs of the EU Blue Economy, Marine Environment and Marine Knowledge agendas. 

Ocean.

Blue4All – Blueprint demonstration for co-created effective, efficient and resilient networks of MPAs

There is an urgent need to strengthen marine conservation and restoration globally. One of the key measures to achieve this is to ensure that enough sea area is protected in effective ways. This requires designation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in different marine habitats. According to the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, 30% of Europe’s sea and land areas should be under strict protection. 

Ocean, Jobs & Growth.

CAMPAGNA MONITORAGGIO ISPRA2-SACCA DI GORO

Research activity, with the aim of implementing a modeling system in order to monitor and predict the diffusion into the sea of waters contaminated by faecal bacteria with a specific focus on the “Sacca di Goro” area.

Ocean, Health.

CAPABLE – ClimAte Policy AcceptaBiLity Economic framework

CAPABLE is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme. and carried out by a transdisciplinary European consortium consisting of 10 partner institutions and universities across Europe and is coordinated by the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC). CAPABLE will provide robust, resilient and actionable recommendations for the design of socially and economically acceptable climate policy measures for 2030 and beyond

Future Earth, Energy, Global Policy, Jobs & Growth.

CE2COAST – Downscaling Climate and Ocean Change to Services: Thresholds and Opportunities

Global change from anthropogenic forcing will have significant impacts at regional and coastal scales on marine systems and dependent socioeconomic systems and ecosystem services and can strongly interact with regional/local drivers such as fishing, pollution, and eutrophication. A capacity to understand and predict these impacts on regional seas and coasts is essential for developing robust strategies for adaptation and mitigation and therefore for the EU’s fulfilment of UN SDGs 13 and 14 but also 2, 6,8, 9, 11, 12, since regional seas and coastal areas support food production, water quality, and industrial/economic activities such as fisheries and aquaculture). Projections of climate and ocean change have been delivered at global or basin scales using Global Climate or Earth System Models (ESMs). However, such models are not able to provide the necessary resolution of physical processes that determine fluxes of carbon, nutrients, heat, and light which in turn control the growth response of the marine food web and thereby ecosystem services such as food supply to fisheries/aquaculture, water quality control, and carbon sequestration. Another limitation of ESMs is that the representation of the marine food web tends to be highly simplified which in turn limits the ability to capture potential shifts in planktonic community structure and elemental stoichiometry and thereby resulting impacts/feedbacks on services. CE2COAST is the coordinated assemblage and analysis of observational and modelling data to deliver state, trends and variability of pressures on ocean services resulting from ocean and coastal climate and biogeochemical change at the European and global scale.

Cities & Coasts, Future Earth, Ocean, Water, Food and Land Use.

CircEUlar – Developing circular pathways for a EU low-carbon transition

CircEUlar is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme and carried out by a consortium of 10 European organisations. The CircEUlar project aims to understand the dynamics and levers for societal transformation towards a net-zero emission circular economy. The project will address circularity through three main levers: 1) societal transformation to limit material stock growth through dematerialisation, material efficiency, and a transition to a service-based economy; 2) product lifetime extension through repair, maintenance, resale, reuse, and repurposing of obsolete fossil infrastructures; 3) waste reduction management through collection and treatment systems that optimise reuse and recycling. The project considers three focus areas for deep-dive empirical and modelling analysis, integrated into economy-wide modelling frameworks and pathways assessment: digitalisation, mobility and buildings and household services.

CircoMod: Circular Economy Modelling for Climate Change Mitigation

CircoMod is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme and carried out by a consortium of 12 European organizations. The project aims at developing a new generation of advanced models and scenarios that will assess how CE can reduce future GHGs and material use. The project brings together a unique consortium of leading research teams from different disciplines, including industrial ecology and material flow modelling, process-oriented integrated assessment modelling, and macro-economic modelling.  It aims for a breakthrough in integrating CE and GHG mitigation assessments by developing an analytical framework that maps circular economy strategies to existing influential climate scenarios; by providing robust and timely CE data in an open repository; and, by improving the representation of the CE in leading models used by European and global institutions, while strengthening links between the models. These key scientific breakthroughs enable robust scientific assessments in collaboration with stakeholders across policy and industry. 

Cities & Coasts, Energy, Global Policy, Jobs & Growth.

CLIMAAX – CLIMAte risk and vulnerability Assessment framework and toolboX

CLIMAAX responds to the call HORIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-02-01 by providing financial, analytical and practical support to European regions, allowing an improvement of regional climate and emergency risk management plans. It is designed to significantly contribute to the harmonization and consolidation of the practice of climate risk assessment, leaving a substantial legacy for upcoming European initiatives.

Future Earth, Cities & Coasts, Global Policy, Water, Food and Land Use.

Climateurope2 – Supporting and standardizing climate services in Europe and beyond

Climateurope2 aims to develop future equitable and quality-assured climate services to all sectors of society by: a) developing standardisation procedures for climate services; b) Supporting an equitable European climate services community; and c) Enhancing the uptake of quality-assured climate services to support adaptation and mitigation to climate change and variability. The project will identify the support and standardisation needs of climate services, including criteria for certification and labelling, as well as the user-driven criteria needed to support climate action. This information will be used to propose a taxonomy of climate services, suggest community-based good practices and guidelines, and propose standards where possible. A large variety of activities to support the communities involved in European climate services will also be organised.

Future Earth, Global Policy.

CLINT – CLImate INTelligence: Extreme events detection, attribution and adaptation design using machine learning

Weather and climate extremes pose challenges for adaptation and mitigation policies as well as disaster risk management, emphasizing the value of Climate Services in supporting strategic decision-making. Today Climate Services can benefit from an unprecedented availability of data, in particular from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, and from recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to exploit the full potential of these data. The main objective of CLINT is the development of an AI framework composed of Machine Learning (ML) techniques and algorithms to process big climate datasets for improving Climate Science in the detection, causation and attribution of Extreme Events (EE), including tropical cyclones, heatwaves and warm nights, and extreme droughts, along with compound events and concurrent extremes. Specifically, the framework will support (1) the detection of spatial and temporal patterns, and evolutions of climatological fields associated with Extreme Events, (2) the validation of the physically based nature of causality discovered by ML algorithms, and (3) the attribution of past and future Extreme Events to emissions of greenhouse gases and other anthropogenic forcing. The framework will also cover the quantification of the Extreme Events impacts on a variety of socio-economic sectors under historical, forecasted and projected climate conditions by developing innovative and sectorial AI-enhanced Climate Services. These will be demonstrated across different spatial scales, from the pan European scale to support EU policies addressing the Water-Energy-Food Nexus to the local scale in three types of Climate Change Hotspots. Finally, these services will be operationalized into Web Processing Services, according to

Future Earth, Health, Water, Food and Land Use.

COMMITTED – Climate pOlicy assessment and Mitigation Modeling to Integrate national and global TransiTion pathways for Environmental-friendly Development

To support the international negotiation process, there must be a good understanding of different outcomes and assumptions between the analytical teams that provide input into the negotiations and/or directly support the development of the low-emission mid-century strategies. In such a situation, negotiators can start from a common understanding of the knowledge base and the associated uncertainties. COMMITTED aims to contribute to both 1) supporting the analytical capacity for national teams to provide analyses of NDCs and long-term mitigation strategies and pathways in Asian countries and 2) creating a robust scientific understanding of the possibilities, sectoral potentials and socioeconomic implications of different countries to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in the context of long-term low-emission development strategies and the overall objectives of the Paris Agreement. In the past, model comparison projects and interactions between modelling groups and policymakers have proven to be effective instruments for achieving these goals.

Future Earth.

CONCEPTU MARIS – CONservation of CEtaceans and Pelagic sea TUrtles in Med: Managing Actions for their Recovery In Sustainability

The Mediterranean Sea is undergoing severe changes driven by increasing anthropogenic pressures. CEtaceans and Pelagic sea TUrtles (CEPTU hereafter) are among the most important charismatic species in the Mediterranean Sea, and crucial bioindicators of marine health conditions. However, there is a data deficiency for most taxa, which is mainly due to the fact that CEPTU species spend the majority of their life in remote offshore areas that are the most difficult to monitor because of their extent. With their offshore movements, they are exposed to multiple anthropogenic stressors, such as maritime traffic causing pollution, underwater noise, disturbance and marine litter exposing the species to a higher risk of entanglement, ingestion or toxicological effects. Entanglement in fishing-related gears also contributes to increased risks linked to the pressure of fishing in pelagic areas.

Ocean.

Copernicus Marine Service BS MFC -Black Sea Monitoring and Forecasting Centre of the Copernicus Marine Service

Copernicus is the European Union’s Earth observation programme which offers information services that draw from satellite Earth Observation and in-situ (non-space) data and is managed by the European Commission. The Copernicus Marine Service provides regular and systematic reference information on the physical and biogeochemical state, variability and dynamics of the ocean and marine ecosystems for the global ocean and the European regional seas. It has been implemented by Mercator Ocean International (MOI) since 2015. It enables marine policy implementation, supports Blue Growth and scientific innovation. Copernicus Marine Service is an open and free of charge service, compliant with EU regulations such as INSPIRE and the Delegated Regulation on Copernicus data and information policy.

Ocean.

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