InBestSoil: Monetary valuation of soil ecosystem services and creation of initiatives to invest in soil health: setting a framework for the inclusion of soil health in business and in the policy making process
InBestSoil is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme involving twenty partners from ten countries, with very different profiles (universities, small and medium-sized enterprises, consultancies, farmers, and NOGs, among others). The project will provide data, evidence, tools and models to assess how investment in soil health can contribute to the transition to a long-term resilient and sustainable use of soil, using 6 lighthouses and 3 living labs, which provides a total of 9 study areas across 4 biogeographic regions from Europe (Boreal, Continental, Atlantic, Mediterranean), and different land uses (agriculture, forest, urban, mining), as models for co-creation and co-design (multi-actor approach, responsible research and innovation and open science).
interTwin – An interdisciplinary Digital Twin Engine for Science
interTwin co-designs and implements the prototype of an interdisciplinary Digital Twin Engine (DTE), an open-source platform that provides generic and tailored software components for modelling and simulation to integrate application-specific Digital Twins (DTs). Its specifications and implementation are based on a co-designed conceptual model – the DTE blueprint architecture – guided by the principles of open standards and interoperability. The ambition is to develop a common approach to the implementation of DTs that is applicable across the whole spectrum of scientific disciplines and beyond to facilitate developments and collaboration. Co-design involves DT use cases for High energy physics, Radio astronomy, Astroparticle physics, Climate research, and Environmental monitoring, whose complex requirements are expected to significantly advance the state of the art of modelling and simulation using heterogeneous distributed digital infrastructures, advanced workflow composition, real-time data management and processing, quality and uncertainty tracing of models, data fusion and analytics. As a result, a consolidation of software technologies supporting research will emerge. The validation of the technology with multiple infrastructure facilities will boost the accessibility of users to technological capacity and the support of AI uptake in research. interTwin builds on the capacities of experts from pan-European research infrastructures and the long tail of science, an Open-Source Community of technology providers that will deliver TRL 6/7 capabilities to implement the interdisciplinary DTE, experts of the European Centre of Excellence in Exascale Computing, and infrastructure providers from the EGI Federation, PRACE and EuroHPC supporting data and compute intensive science. interTwin key exploitable results will
Invest4Nature – Promoting investments in NBS and accelerating market uptake by gaining a better understanding of the economic performance of NBS, considering climate mitigation and risk reduction
Currently there is a range of Nature-based solutions (NBS) emerging mostly with strong public funding elements, but a market for NBS has not yet emerged. While mostly small scale NBS are implemented as pilots for urban resilience to climate change the full range of economic and societal benefits for NBS are not systematically understood and mapped and are not sufficiently used to back the business and investment case for NBS. The numerous benefits may include mitigation and adaptation to climate change (including the reduction of urban heat island effect and flood mitigation), reduction of pollution, improved biodiversity and ecosystem services, increased well-being for citizens, including physical and mental health or recreation, social cohesion, and community building. While effort for climate change mitigation and adaptation are increasing, the role of NBS in this context is not well understood. In particular, risk reduction of NBS for the private and public insurance sector has not yet been systematically included in economic valuation of NBS. Holistic understanding of benefits and benefit flows however are important for the society including upscaling and maximising the benefits achievable with NBS and activation financing for NBS.
IRIDE Lot 1
The IRIDE program is an innovative project undertaken by the Italian government in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) to leverage resources from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). Phase 2 of IRIDE Lot 1 started in October 2024 following the successful implementation of the IRIDE Precursor Phase. The main purpose of the project is to deliver an operational portfolio of geospatial services and develop digital tools for End and Pilot users within the Thematic Services S1-Coastal and Marine Monitoring, S2- Air Quality, S5- Hydro-Meteorological-Climate, S6- WaterManagement. The operational services allow mapping, monitoring and forecasting of various characteristics of coastal areas (including geomorphological, land use, flooding, habitats etc.) as well as operational model validation, operational air quality monitoring and forecast, pollutant emissions monitoring and assessment, re-analysis of air quality at national scale, hydro-meterological mapping and monitoring atmospheric structure, greenhouse gases and others essential climate variables monitoring, lightening monitoring, flood forecasting and sediment management, etc.
IRIDE Lot 4
The IRIDE program is an innovative project undertaken by the Italian government, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), to leverage resources from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). Following the successful implementation of the IRIDE Precursor Phase, the Phase 2 started in October 2024. The main purpose of the project is to deliver an operational portfolio of geospatial services and develop digital tools for End and Pilot users within the Thematic Services S7-Emergency and S8-Security. The operational services allow mapping, monitoring and forecasting of critical events such as earthquakes, floods, extreme weather events, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, landslides, avalanches, mudflows, tsunamis, and other natural or man-made disasters. Additionally, the program includes Maritime Surveillance, focusing on oil spill detection, sea pollution management, and vessel tracking, ensuring comprehensive support for emergency and security needs.
LIFE21-IPC-IT-LIFE CLIMAX PO | CLIMate Adaptation for the PO river basin district
CLIMAX PO is a project funded by a LIFE grant of the European Commission. CLIMAX PO brings together most national and regional and some of the local authorities playing a role in implementing the Italian strategy on adaptation in the Po River Basin, an area of 74.000 km2 , with 3.200 local authorities, 16 million inhabitant and generating 40% of the Italian GDP. CLIMAX PO is led by the National Po River Basin District Authority (ADBPO) chaired directly by the Italian Minister for the Environment and responsible for the implementation of the NAS at district level. The consortium covers the whole geographical river basin, all levels of Governance (National, Regional, Local) and necessary competences with 3 major research institutes on board.
LIQUIDICE: LinkIng and QUantifying the Impacts of climate change on inlanD ICE, snow cover, and permafrost on water resources and society in vulnerable regions
Recognizing the central role played by snow, ice and permafrost in the global climate system, the LIQUIDICE project joins expert cryospheric observers and modelers to: i) comprehensively re-assess the past and future century-plus of climate-induced high impact changes to the Greenland ice sheet and climate vulnerable locations across the Alps, Norway, High Mountain Asia (HMA) and Svalbard, including permafrost areas and their ecosystems; ii) develop new, expanded and harmonized data from satellite Earth Observation (EO) and ground stations; iii) use these data to improve and test a hierarchy of ice sheet and glacier models with Earth System Models (ESMs); iv) through these steps, yield new process understanding, and ultimately v) inform water resource, hydropower, and socio-economic strategies through clear and transparent communication of results and uncertainties. The project’s strengths lie in new multidisciplinary collaborations across 18 research institutions, from eight European countries (Poland, Italy, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom) and India, encompassing expertise in field observations, satellite EO techniques, ESM development and application, and socio-economic analysis. Key deliverables include a) FAIR-principled new multi-decade data catalogues of multi-regional snow water equivalent and a 44-year EO-derived albedo record; b) assessments of impact of model resolution and degree of coupling on results; c) refined past and future glacier, ice cap and Greenland ice sheet freshwater fluxes to oceans and global sea level rise with indirect constraint on Antarctica; d) new hydrological simulations for HMA; e) a new framework for a Water Discharge Impact Assessments; f) socio-economic integrated risk and adaptation assessments;
LOCALISED – Localised decarbonisation pathways for citizens, local administrations and businesses to inform for mitigation and adaptation action
LOCALISED is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme and carried out by a consortium of 12 European organisations. The LOCALISED project pulls together a multidisciplinary consortium that includes experienced research institutions, local city authorities – that will inform the development and testing of the LOCALISED tools, as well as associated partners like Assolombarda, which will provide insights regarding the business sector.
MAGICA – MAximising the synergy of European research Governance and Innovation for Climate Action
MAGICA maximizes the synergies between infrastructure investments and initiatives of climate change research and innovation across the European Research Area (ERA) by building upon and further implementing the Mission of JPI Climate in support to the international and European climate agenda (including the European Green Deal and Adaptation Strategy).
MED-IREN: Mediterranean critical Infrastructure Resilience Engineering with Nature based solutions (MED-IREN)
The Med-IREN project is strategically designed to demonstrate actionable solutions for climate-proofing critical infrastructures across the Mediterranean, with a particular focus on enhancing resilience through Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). These solutions will be applied to improve climate risk management and ensure business continuity in the face of extreme climate change. The project will be implemented in five key lighthouse regions across the Mediterranean (Granollers, PACA, Ischia, Tuscany, Egaleo), each addressing a specific, present-day challenge. These regions will align with regional policies, further contributing to the EU’s position as a global leader in climate resilience. Moreover, the project will leverage Dataclime, CMCC’s advanced climate service platform, to provide cutting-edge data and analytics for real-time monitoring and risk assessment, ensuring that the project’s impact is grounded in the most up-to-date scientific evidence and fostering actionable insights for stakeholders
MEDEWSA – Mediterranean and pan-European forecast and Early Warning System against natural hazards
Natural hazards, such as extreme weather events, are exacerbated by climate change. As a result, emergency responses are becoming more protracted, expensive, frequent, and stretching limited available resources. This is especially apparent in rapidly warming regions. MedEWSa addresses these challenges by providing novel solutions to ensure timely, precise, and actionable impact and finance forecasting, and early warning systems (EWS) that support the rapid deployment of first responders to vulnerable areas.
MELTED – MachinE Learning for arcTic ice prEDiction
The Arctic region plays a vital role in the global climate system, it is strongly affected by climate change, and in turn one of its drivers. The Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average, transitioning into an entirely different climate than a few decades ago (Legg, 2021). Satellite data reveal that the September sea ice extent declined by ~13% per decade since 1979 causing major changes in the oceanic heat flux. Changes in the Arctic sea ice impact extreme weather and climate events beyond the Arctic region, favouring extreme Northern Hemisphere winters (Kretschmer et al., 2016) or wetter European summers (Screen, 2013). Arctic changes have a substantial socio-economical relevance (e.g. indigenous communities, shipping and tourism, fisheries), as well as a geopolitical dimension, given possible shipping routes and natural resources exploitation. Understanding the causes of these changes is thus of paramount importance yet substantial gaps still exist. Moreover, numerous studies have demonstrated the limitations of current-generation climate models in accurately representing essential aspects of polar climates, such as Arctic sea ice loss (Wang et al., 2016) or water mass changes (Ilicak et al., 2016).
MISSION: MaritIme juSt in time optimiSatION Interoperable Port Call and Voyage Optimization tool
The MISSION project will eliminate bottlenecks of the overall maritime supply chain creating significant economic advantages for direct stakeholders and environmental benefits for society. By enabling collaboration among stakeholders and allowing ship schedules to be synchronised, ship operations and port services will be optimised, thus enhancing the efficiency of maritime operations and reducing the fuel consumption and GHG emissions. The project will demonstrate the benefits and challenges of MISSION specifically for three shipping segments, Tramp (bulk and tanker) RoRo, and container ship traffic, connecting ports in the European seas of Spain, Italy, Greece and Lithuania. MISSION’s port call optimisation and end-to-end orchestration of different traffic types will be built on data sharing platforms, with reference to harmonised standards and provide application programming interfaces for interoperability.
MULTICLIMACT: MULTI-faceted CLIMate adaptation ACTions to improve resilience, preparedness and responsiveness of the built environment against multiple hazards at multiple scales
The MULTICLIMACT European project was funded under topic HORIZON-CL5-2022-D4-02-01. This project aims to enhance the resilience of built environment and its inhabitants in the face of changing climate conditions and increased extreme events. MULTICLIMACT want to realize a comprehensive framework and toolkit to assess and bolster resilience at various scales, considering both natural hazards and supply-chain vulnerabilities.
MYRIAD-EU – Multi-hazard and sYstemic framework for enhancing Risk-Informed mAnagement and Decision-making in the E.U.
MYRIAD-EU’s vision is to catalyse the paradigm shift required to move towards a multi-risk, multi-sector, systemic approach to risk management.
NATURANCE – Nature for insurance, and insurance for nature
NATURANCE is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme. It will examine technical, financial and operational feasibility and performance of solutions that are built upon and combine disaster risk financing & investments with nature-based solutions.
NBRACER: Nature Based Solutions for Atlantic Regional Climate Resilience
NBRACER is a project funded by HORIZON Europe Research and Innovation actions in support of the implementation of the Adaptation to Climate Change Mission (HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01). NBRACER aims at accelerating the transformation towards climate resilient regions that are safe, green, clean and healthy by means of an innovative and practical approach, by working across sectors and disciplines, experimenting and involving local communities.
NECCTON- New Copernicus capability for trophic ocean networks
The ocean’s biodiversity supports the livelihoods of over three billion people, providing vital services, including food and nutrient cycling. However marine policy and resource management do not yet consider the latest scientific advances, even when the state-of- the-art operational models of the European Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS) are used. The project’s objective is to enable CMEMS to deliver novel products that inform marine biodiversity conservation and food resources management, by fusing new data into innovative ecosystem models that integrate biological and abiotic components, habitats, and stressors of marine ecosystems. NECCTON will inter-link new models in the CMEMS systems, thus building novel capacities to simulate higher-trophic-levels, benthic habitats, pollutants, and deliver projections of climate change impacts. We will develop and exploit new data-processing chains, supporting CMEMS’ use of novel ecosystem observations, including new hyperspectral data from satellites, as well as available acoustic, pollution and omics data. We will fuse these new data and models by using innovative machine-learning algorithms to improve models and data assimilation methods. These developments will be applied in thirteen case studies, co-designed with fisheries and conservation managers as part of our pathway-to-impact, resulting in the demonstration of Technological Readiness Level 6 of NECCTON products. The project objectives will be achieved by a team of twenty-three world-class organizations with track records for all the key project components. It includes the CMEMS Entrusted Entity and core developers, who will promote the final uptake of NECCTON by CMEMS. On project completion, NECCTON will provide CMEMS with the scientific and technical
NEVERMORE: New Enabling Visions and tools for End-useRs and stakeholders thanks to a common MOdeling appRoach towards a climatE neutral and resilient society
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on Climate Change 2021 is a “code red for humanity” according to the UN Secretary-General. It is thus essential to work on a climate resilient society. This entails both climate neutrality and mitigation of those impacts of climate change that are making themselves felt already. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of improved translations of scientific insights into policy and social practice.
NEWPATHWAYS: New pathways for equitable climate action in line with the paris agreement and sustainable development
NEWPATHWAYS is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme and the consortium consists of 13 partners, and brings together leading research groups to support climate policymaking within and outside the EU. These research groups are involved in modelling international climate policy, national policies, social science, policy analysis, environmental assessment, and stakeholder engagement.
NEXOGENESIS – Facilitating the next generation of effective and intelligent water-related policies utilising artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning to assess the water-energy-food ecosystem (WEFE) nexus
Water, energy, food, and ecosystems (WEFE) are interconnected, comprising a coherent system (nexus) dominated by complexity and modulated by climatic and socio-economic drivers. Resource constraints, and their interconnectedness could hamper economic development, including optimal trade, market and policy solutions. NEXOGENESIS offers a coherent WEFE nexus framework for the assessment of potential impact pathways of implementing new policy objectives (WFD, RED, CAP, SDGs, Paris Agreement) in the nexus, including: (i) biophysical and socio-economic modelling; (ii) stakeholder engagement together with; (iii) validation of NEXOGENESIS outputs and; (iv) use of the latest artificial intelligence techniques.
NODES – Nord-Ovest Digitale E Sostenibile
NODES is an Innovation Ecosystem structured in a way such as to guarantee interdisciplinarity among its diverse themes and cross-fertilization of digital-driven technology and innovation.