Why we created the
Climate KIC Academy

Solla Zophoniasdottir has worked for over 15 years to expand and facilitate the learning processes of organisations, with a focus on skill building and shifting mindsets to see transformation in the climate space. She is an expert in the facilitation of change management processes, working to create change both within and across different cultures. She is passionate about systems change, innovation and working with practitioners who have the power to make transformational change on some of our world’s biggest challenges.

“We want to build alliances with partners in the skill-building space and to serve cities at the beginning of their climate neutrality journey. We urge people from all sectors – educational bodies, industry leaders, policy makers, and community advocates – to support or join the Climate Academy. For funders and investors, we ask for financial support to expand our offerings and reach. For partners, we’re looking to collaborate on curriculum development and program delivery. For potential participants, we’re inviting you to enroll in our upcoming courses to become the change-makers our planet needs.”

As Climate-KIC’s Learning Strategy Lead, I’ve been deeply involved in shaping and growing the Climate-KIC Academy over the past several years. My role encompasses highlighting Climate-KIC’s most impactful capacity-building modules and leading a comprehensive collaboration process with international stakeholders and funders to address the critical climate skills gap. This work was further strengthened by a thorough feasibility study last year, which confirmed the urgent need for our efforts, revealing that over half the global workforce lacks the necessary green skills for a sustainable transition, with only one in eight workers possessing even a single green skill.

Tessa Finch has over 15 years of international experience working in the private, consulting and NGO/development sectors. Following her 2 years of working with small scale farmers in East Africa, she realized the critical importance of tackling climate change to ensure global food security.

She has previously held commercial roles in learning and development (as Head of Client Management), and has expertise in impact assessment, theory of change and team leadership (as former MEL Associate), as well as complex project and grant management. She excels in facilitation, designing and implementing processes and building cohesion between people. Tessa is on the Advisory Board for IKC3, Ireland’s Knowledge Centre for Climate, and is Board member for her local sports club.

“Tackling Climate Change is a complex problem. European leaders need a new way of approaching the issue, an approach that supports dealing with complexity, participatory decision making, inclusivity and transparency, and acting on evidence.

As a Designer & Producer of Learning I’ve helped shape the overall design of Climate Leadership Academy, bringing insights from Climate KIC’s 15 years of experience of education activities to support the learning approach and methodologies.

Saskia Visser(f) is the head of the team Resilient & Climate Neutral Regions and member of the Management Team at EIT- Climate Kic. She has 26 years of experience in both execution and management of sustainable land use research. Saskia works on multidisciplinary research topics like Circular agriculture, Climate Resilient Food Systems, Climate Smart Land Management and Land Use optimization. Saskia is the strategic advisor of the European Joint Program on Agricultural Soils under climate Change. In that role Saskia facilitates the development of a Europe wide network of Soil researchers, supports strategic partnerships of EJP SOIL with both European and worldwide initiatives. She further contributes to the SOIL Health Living Lab support program SOILL; facilitating the implementation of the SOILL Learning Journey, which enables the development of a sustainable Living lab, test and validate innovations in soil management and

It is my vocational as well as personal mission to work towards a zero-carbon economy by promoting sustainable food systems, sustainable consumption patterns, circular economy and resource optimization.

I have 15 years of experience with project- and process management gathered from political organizations and from my life as an entrepreneur and consultant. My focus has been on climate innovation, social responsibility, social innovation, fundraising, business development and organizational development.

I have spent the past 6 years focusing on circular construction and sustainable food systems and -consumption patterns, alternative proteins and sustainable cropping systems.

I am an entrepreneur and was one of the founding partners of the consultancy Creature ApS, which I founded together with two partners. Creature facilitated collaborative social innovation through workshops, business incubators and larger projects for 5 years.

As MEL Analyst at Climate-KIC, I support projects and programmes in understanding what kind of changes are they creating in the world, and learning to navigate that complexity. This includes traditional reporting mechanisms such as indicators, as well as adaptive and complexity oriented evaluation focused on learning.

Additionally, I support the conceptual and methodological design of mid and long term innovation processes, such as a innovations cluster initiative and innovation portfolio development, with a strong focus on collaborative governance and co-creation as an enabler of sustainable, place-based innovation ecosystems.

Carolina Giraldo Nohra is a leading expert in Systems and Policy Innovation for the Circular Economy at EIT Climate KIC’s Deep Demonstrations program. She specializes in advancing innovation portfolios, policy innovation, and co-developing policy design labs that drive systemic change in circularity and climate adaptation. Additionally, she co-leads a major capacity-building initiative focused on industrial transformation, climate adaptation, and circular economy transitions. As the Lead Designer for trainings in Portfolio Innovation, Systems Innovation, and Innovation Governance, she develops methodologies and capacity-building programs that equip policymakers and stakeholders with the frameworks and strategies needed to accelerate circular transitions on a global scale.

A maritime economist by training (BSc) and holding an MSc in Finance, professional experience in the climate and arts sectors and multiple years of work with innovation and communities, I combine my skills to support life on our planet.

With extensive expertise in sustainable innovation, blue economy and circularity, I am leading our Maritime and Industrial Symbiosis Programmes in Climate-KIC. Together with magnificent teams across Europe and the world we are materialising multi-year, multi-stakeholder strategies and programmes which drive collaboration between industries, research, civil society, policy-makers in the blue economy and heavy industry sectors towards a zero-carbon, regenerative, prosperous and climate resilient society for all.

Currently, I co-lead Collective Sensemaking and Strategic Learning activities within the NetZeroCities project, a European initiative focused on accelerating the pace and scale of systemic change to help cities achieve climate neutrality through locally designed actions. My role involves experimenting with participatory methods to design and facilitate learning experiences that enable cities to share challenges, solutions, and insights. Some of the key themes we are addressing include building inclusive citizen engagement programs, strengthening multi-actor collaboration between public, private, and NGO actors, promoting behavioral change, developing blended finance models, and creating agile governance frameworks to transition from pilots to large-scale transformations. This collaborative learning space fosters leadership growth and accelerates ecosystem activation by building trust-based relationships that bridge the gap between climate commitments and the realities of implementation.

In my role I am supporting with connections across multiple programmes. In particular I identify relevant challenges, spekers and experiences that can contribute, inspire and be integrated in the Climate KIC Academy.

As Policy and EU Affairs Orchestrator I see the role of policy as a trigger for systemic transitions. Policy must be complemented by public administrations, industry big and small and innovators working together. I want to help and see transitions happening in practice, across systems and in sync and how the learnings from these processes can be fed back into policy. Climate-KIC Academy is crucial in bringing together and buidling understanding across different stakeholders and systems as to what, why and how needs to happen. I also believe in the power of industry and especially innovators in accelerating change – but they need (our) help and knowledge, especially in todays geopolitical turmoil and sliding back to old, unsustainable, ways.