GRACE aims to address the specific needs of rural and small/medium communities localised in RRAs of Europe to adapt and build resilience against Climate Change by strengthening their capacities and empower them to become actors of change and take transformative action. GRACE will develop and demonstrate a multidimensional portfolio of innovative multifunctional CCA solutions tailored for RRA, increase the institutional adaptation, address climate risks, and contribute to several policy objectives. These solutions will also integrate circular economy principles to promote sustainable resource use, regenerative practices, and closed-loop systems to enhance local adaptation capacity. At the same time, the project will strengthen local social-economic activities, foster circular business opportunities, leverage the valorisation of natural capital, and contribute to counterbalancing the phenomena of depopulation and ageing in RRA.

To achieve its primary goal, GRACE has set 5 specific objectives:

• SO1: Plant the seeds for community-based transformative adaptation in a collaborative exploration and planning process
• SO2: Test, demonstrate and prepare the scale-up of innovative, multifunctional and place-based CCA solutions through community-driven interventions for accelerating adaptation capacity to CC risks
• SO3. Catalyse resources and knowledge to support informed and well-grounded climate transition in RRA territories
• SO4. Accelerate transformation by building adaptive capacities through dedicated capacity-building programme for RRA SHs and climate-smart CIT and via peer-to-peer learning between regions
• SO5: Boost the uptake of innovative results and the mobilisation of local communities through local and EU-wide communication, dissemination and exploitation measures and synergies with linked initiatives

CMCC role:
Project Coordinator; WP3 and WP7 leader

Activities
GRACE will support Remote Rural Areas (RRA) regions and communities in accelerating their transformation to Climate Resielence through promoting Climate Adaotation in 10 European RRA regions and communities.

By this, GRACE will directly contribute to the EU’s Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, which aims to help at least 150 regions and communities across Europe become climate resilient by 2030. Aligned with the EU’s adaptation strategy, GRACE will adopt a systemic approach to adaptation to drive transformational change in the project regions. This is fundamental as coping and incremental adaptation are often not sufficient to address the root causes of vulnerability and can lead to unsustainable or maladaptation.

Transformative adaptation is defined as “a fundamental reconsideration of human-environment relations” (Kuhl et al., 2021), and thus GRACE will work with solutions for different Key Community Systems across a diversity of RRA typologies and  landscapes, tailored to the physical elements and human environments characterizing these territories.

GRACE will also address several key dimensions that have the potential to create enabling environments and the right conditions (new knowledge, data & tools; tailored governance models; economic resources, changed mindsets and behavioural shifts) for accelerating transformational and long-term systemic shifts in these territories.

Expected results
GRACE will elevate the ambition in demonstrating solutions tailored to European rural areas and small to medium sized local communities through the application of an interdisciplinary approach. It will go beyond the State of the Art across several interconnected key dimensions, including:

• Transformative CA: GRACE will strategically focus on the typology of rural areas that need the most support in CA to consider: i) how rural and small and medium-sized communities in the most remote areas of the EU can be empowered to become active actors of change, induce transformation and innovation in the enabling conditions, and protect the KCS from present and future climate risks ii) what solutions and adaptation pathways can be followed iii) and explore, if and how, the journey to achieve transformative climate resilient communities can represent an opportunity for the development of RRA communities and to reduce the urban-rural discontinuity.
• Advanced multi-hazard risk modelling and scenario analysis: GRACE will fill a current gap concerning the lack of availability of climate risk assessments in RRA. The gap significantly reduces the institutional capacity of public authorities to adapt to CC with integrated planning and the design of holistic measures able to account for multi-hazards risk scenarios. Using new data mapping and data generation techniques (WP1) GRACE will develop detailed climate risk analysis to accurately reflect and unravel the complex interactions between different hazards and their impacts across various rural landscapes, including scenario planning – Social innovation and community empowerment in CR:

Partners
2 – INOVA+ – INNOVATION SERVICES, SA
3 – CENTRE INTERNATIONAL DE HAUTES ETUDES AGRONOMIQUES MEDITERRANEENNES
4 – STICHTING VU
5 – EUROPEAN PUBLIC LAW ORGANIZATION
6 – ASSOCIATION EUROPEENNE POUR L’INNOVATION DANS LE DEVELOPPEMENT LOCAL
7 – STOWARZYSZENIE CENTRUM ROZWIAZAN SYSTEMOWYCH
8 – EUROPEAN SCIENCE COMMUNICATION INSTITUTE (ESCI) GGMBH
9 – BUNDESANSTALT FUR AGRARWIRTSCHAFT UND BERGBAUERNFRAGEN
9.1 – BAB Project Einrichtung mit eigener Rechtspersönlichkeit an der Bundesanstalt für Agrarwirtschaft und Bergbauernfragen
10 – ACONIUM GMBH
11 – INSTITUT FUER LAENDLICHE STRUKTURFORSCHUNG EV
12 – EUROPEAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
13 – Comunidade Intermunicipal do Baixo Alentejo
14 – Gemeinsame Region Bucklige Welt – Wechselland
15 – Comune di Cavallino Treporti
16 – PERIFEREIA THESSALIAS
17 – VIDZEMES PLANOSANAS REGIONS
18 – SVERIGES LANTBRUKSUNIVERSITET
19 – REGION VASTERBOTTEN
20 – AALBORG KOMMUNE
21 – DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET
22 – Zilina self-governing region
23 – Zalishchyky city council
24 – ASSOCIACAO ESTACAO BIOLOGICA DE MERTOLA
25 – INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DE BEJA
26 – MAYO COUNTY COUNCIL