Projects List

Ports are critical infrastructure assets for the economy and development, with a high vulnerability to a changing climate especially in view of their location in coastal zones. This project will provide a baseline assessment in order to implement improved port resilience to port operations and drive innovative solutions. Expert advice, stakeholder consultation and thorough intelligence gathering on three target ports in Valencia and Greece, will support the production of reports on the thematics, in order to identify cause and effect relationships, dependencies and opportunities for innovation.
CLIMAPORTS project aims to mobilise local actors and develop understanding around the necessity of a portfolio of solutions for zero-net emissions, revitalization of seaports and the strengthening of fragile eco-systems and their communities. Through the development of training materials (e.g webinars on systems thinking, events, workshops, etc.) the project aims to raise awareness and contribute to future literacy.
The project will assess the current status of ports including risk and vulnerabilities, policies and governance structure, along with climate and socio-economic data, and stakeholder needs and challenges. A complete picture of the practices in ports will be gathered, highlighting those gaps that need to be addressed to lessen their exposure to the risk of climate variability, and innovative solutions that could be adopted. A ‘How-To’ guide, along with training material will be produced.

CFM TRACTION will co-design the ex-ante impact assessment of two policy instruments to decarbonise the materials sector: Climate Contribution for the automotive and construction sectors, and Project-based Carbon Contracts for Difference (CCfDs), developing advisory services to support strategic decision making on the design of industrial policy. Policy innovation to fully internalise carbon costs in market prices and create markets for climate-friendly production and use of basic materials is essential to achieve decarbonisation of the industries which produce them. Industry and investors increasingly demand a robust policy framework to support the creation of markets for climate-friendly materials, while policymakers require robust evidence on policy aligning carbon pricing with carbon leakage protection and equity concerns.

Building on the previous work of Climate Friendly Materials Platform convened by Climate Strategies and its broad network of key high level stakeholders (from government, industry, finance and civil society), we will co-design ex-ante impact assessments of two policy instruments, which have emerged as most promising to support systemic decarbonisation of basic materials production and use, and the transformation of the sector to net climate neutrality by 2050:

1. The inclusion of a Climate Contribution (for construction and automotive sector) as part of the EU ETS is a charge on carbon-intensive materials sold for final use in Europe. This is an alternative to a Border Carbon Tax, delivering the same results with fewer risks.

2. Project-based Carbon Contracts for Difference are contracts between national governments and companies developing low-carbon projects, which ensures a guaranteed carbon price for the project. CCfDs create lead markets for innovative low-carbon production processes and materials.

We will focus on national-level implementation of these instruments in Germany and Poland, with potential scaling up to EU level.

A holistic-based decision-support tool will be launched to the market in 2021 as a specialised climate service to validate adaptation planning and operations, facing climate extreme events, thanks to a more skilful climate analysis and seasonal forecast. 



Information on potential impacts modelled for near-term climate forecast is important to support the planning and implementation of climate adaptation measures. CRISI-ADAPT II aims to monitor and improve the adaptation planning through a real-time implementation and validation according to near and seasonal range forecast of climate-related natural hazards (aligning adaptation strategies and outputs from European projects as Copernicus or RESCCUE, among others). Since risk and operation management requires holistic treatment of all interconnected sectors affected, CRISI-ADAPT II will provide a democratisation of both the climate risk information required by each end-user and the vulnerability information of them that is required by each impact model. Therefore, identified available tools and data will be expanded and transparently used to support the adaptation and risk reduction activities planned by city governments, modellers, investors, and traders related to all sectors potentially affected by climatic impacts (problem owners). A total of four demonstrations will take place in three countries (Spain, Malta, and Cyprus) focused on four strategic sectors: (1) flooding and emergency response, (2) water management for supply, agriculture, and environment, (3) energy planning, and (4) port infrastructures and operations. Additionally, eight Receiving Regions are part of the consortium to scale methods and results in their respective areas as a test of replicability. A total of five countries will be participating in these tests, adding Italy and Portugal. The analysed sectors will include public services and infrastructures, such as the water sector (urban drainage water source management, water treatment, supply, sanitation, and emergency response), energy (generation and supply), and commodities (production and commercialisation), including agriculture, among others.

Glasgow City Region must prepare for a changing climate. Leaders in the region are committed to adapting, with increasing support for Climate Ready Clyde. Yet the region is delivering only incremental adaptation, reacting to existing trends rather than long-term planning. This will not address climate impacts with the urgency required. Our vision is a city region that is flourishing and equitable in the face of climate change, with world-leading adaptation. Clyde Re:Built will co-design a transformative adaptation strategy informed by an understanding of the systemic political, governance, cultural, behavioural and economic barriers hindering adaptation, and an develop an innovation portfolio to trigger a transformational response, and secure agreement for its implementation. Only with such knowledge can potential solutions be explored, combined, applied, demonstrated and scaled. Current practice focuses on mainstreaming adaptation, working incrementally and building capacity within policy and practice silos. We propose something different – a complex systems approach to contribute to a significant shift in adaptation response. Our approach will stimulate imagination, desire, and capability for the change that is needed for leadership to apply the multiple levers of change and reconfigure the regional structures of control, and sharing of responsibility. Clyde Re:Built will align with transformations around net zero, wellbeing and fairness. It will co-design an iterative learning approach, with Climate Ready Clyde partners & Board. It will work with Climate-KIC to stimulate the market for innovation, and develop a pipeline of investments and possible sources of large-scale finance sources implementation.

The work through the Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstration is starting from the point of the city’s existing climate plan, but then challenging the model of delivery, as well as some of the underlying assumptions within it; the aim of which is to provide for a more aggressive approach to accelerating the route to net zero (this might include new governance models centred around climate transition, new processes to engage citizens or the development of financing models). This KAVA will therefore take some time to work through the intent and frame stages of the Deep Demonstration methodology, avoiding a rush to settle on solutions, but working out what the city is aiming for in the way of outcomes. Once this has been completed then the city cohort will be in a good position to go out to the EIT Climate-KIC community (and the wider market) with a call to action – at this stage we will build a portfolio of experiments with Copenhagen. We will raise funds to complement the EIT grant and select a portfolio of projects that will produce new products, processes, services, tools, start-ups etc, which will be supplied to the challenge owner, associated customers and other similar stakeholders.

We will develop relevant data infrastructure, analysis & policy tools and communications to help deliver a post-COVID net-zero recovery.

COVID-19 has changed the course of our decade of climate-action: the world has slowed, reevaluated and rapidly and radically changed the way it operates. A renewed sense of urgency is driving calls to address resilience & adaptation, systems-shocks such as COVID-19, and the climate crisis.

Timely progression towards net-zero in Europe is dependent on effective and efficient knowledge-sharing: to support the decision-making processes of financial institutions, policymakers and companies in the low-carbon transition.

Future-proofing finance for resilience & adaptation requires a robust data infrastructure that meets the needs of everyone—orchestrating data supply & demand to maximise impact and optimise interventions that enable green regeneration, recovery from COVID-19 and increase resilience.

With partners Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence and University College Dublin we will: deliver insights & modelling that look at climate stress through an economic lens; use granular financial data to assess economic health at country-level; understand how economies can restart ways that lead to demonstrably carbon-net zero outcomes. Our relationships with policymakers & regulators will inform and engage them in innovation.

We will deliver market-facing services including:

1. Data infrastructure and governance 

Rapidly galvanizing efforts to unlock data and develop impact-focussed profitable and/or value-generating tools and services. 

2. Impact analysis tools

Statistical analysis of COVID-19 economic impacts across green, gray and brown industries.

3. Policy

Developing policy positioning, learning materials and a framework for policymakers. 

4. Communications

Developing clear, cohesive and inclusive language and communications to bridge across sectors to enable collaborative and open transformation towards net-zero.

Climate KIC has begun the work of mapping current food systems and envisioning the path forward. To drive this process, practical initiatives need to be taken in order to move words into action. Nextstep proposes using a result-oriented and practical process where gaps and sustainable solutions are identified in a cross-sectional setting including the whole value chain. As a specific case, Nextstep will develop a concrete case within the dairy industry with an initial focus on the primary producer. Specific gaps and solutions along the value chain will be identified collectively in cooperation with key stakeholders, challenge owners and complementary projects in Climate-KICs portfolio.

Within 10 months, the proposed project will demonstrate a shift towards a sustainable food system by co-creating 5 lighthouse concepts acting as levers of transformational change in developing a  just and sustainable dairy industry. The project will connect the deep demonstrations to work towards a common goal of systematic change in the food system.

The project will develop a focused case on dairy producers in the Nordics and collect a diverse range of stakeholders in the value chain to build a collective understanding and transformation potential. Aligning with the work packages, a 2-step process will identify and innovate the probable solutions within the deep demonstrations frame methodology, in order to move words into action.

The results are locally developed concepts and solutions that can generate a fundamental change in the food system, providing sustainable business models for people and planet. Concepts with potential to be replicated and scaled with the right partners in Scandinavia and out in Europe, and providing the challenge owners with the opportunity to become the leaders of innovative change.

Work plays an important role in providing individual income, identity, societal status, and meaning. We are living through a fundamental transformation of work. Climate Change and resource scarcity, Rapid Advances in technological innovation and Lack of talent are some of the global megatrends which are impacting today in our organisations and they will clearly shape the Future of Work. These megatrends bring some challenges and opportunities for our organisations.

That’s why one of the positions that is being framed by MONDRAGON in the DEBAGOIENA2030 Open Innovation Platform is FoW. This position is totally connected and integrated within the Deep Demonstration process

Therefore, this proposal seeks to build a collective capacity in DEBAGOIENA to shape the FoW within the region, and to support cooperatives in the different transitions (technological, social, organisational). Besides, the objective is to invite different stakeholders from diverse communities across the region (and the territory) to identify the global challenges, to redesign our jobs and workplaces for the future.The process we propose has to be highly inclusive and bottom up. We have to imagine it as a democratic, deliberative conversation on the future of work in the Valley. The programme has to be rooted in the real concerns of the coops, but also in the needs of other institutions in the Valley as a whole: redeployment and reskilling of people in low skilled repetitive jobs; need for talent attraction and retention; demographic challenges & ageing workforce; new organisational models with new leaderships, etc.But it also aims at connecting with the ambitions of others: eg younger generations not yet in work.

The ultimate objective is to develop solutions that are rooted in practical problem solving and a vision of what the future should be; based on Mondragon values of good work and drawing on its track record for making social, technological, economic and organisational transitions.

The freight transport sector is one of the most influential in terms of emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, being based almost entirely on the use of fossil fuels. The demand for decarbonisation in this sector is therefore all the more urgent given the impact it has on air quality and climate change. This sector will be more and more urged for mitigation actions.
At the same time, new paradigms are spreading, such as energy communities, recently introduced by the EU directive 2018/2001. A substantial shift of paradigm also in the freight transport can only take place through the involvement of all the actors involved in the supply chain.
The innovative project proposed consists in creating and putting into system all the energy communities interested in decarbonizing a logistic hub as a fright village: trade associations of freight transport and trade, operating companies, neighbouring municipalities. Bologna Fright village, one of the largest logistics and intermodal platforms in Europe, will be the main actor of this project, by creating a test bed for deep transformation of logistics hubs.
The process of creating this climate action ecosystem will take place through direct approaches with stakeholders and unusual actors, e.g. high schools in the area. The heterogeneous energy communities that will be outlined will provide in this way their solutions for decarbonizing a fright village and in general the freight transport sector. The key thematic areas will include: the promotion of active mobility and multimodality that will help bring a truly sustainable and integrated transport and logistic system. The methodology that will be used to identify barriers and opportunities for the extension of the concept of energy community to the logistics and freight transport sector, in terms of reduction of CO2 and pollutants, envisages the organization of direct meetings, workshops with interested groups, along with first simulations of carbon neutrality.

Nouvelle Aquitaine, the largest region in France, is a broad territory, with a large diversity of landscapes (diverse coastal and agricultural systems, mountains, marshes, urban areas) and activity sectors, thus also facing a diversity of challenges with the changing climate. The regional council has initiated the creation of scientific committees on climate change and biodiversity, which produced very comprehensive assessment reports. In particular, the C2A and AcclimaTerra transdisciplinary reports on climate change impact and adaptation were released in 2013 and 2018, including contributions from a wide group of regional experts led by Hervé Le Treut. Following these reports, in July 2019, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region launched an ambitious roadmap (called “Néo Terra”) to accelerate ecological transition. In addition to reducing regional impacts on climate and biodiversity, the AcclimaTerra reports highlighted urgent need for adaptation strategies. Initiated in 2019, the Deep Demonstration project aims to contribute to the implementation of Neoterra while impulsing transformative change for a resilient region. It aims at building a framework towards a multidisciplinary diagnostic of actions needed to strengthen the resilience of the Region for different key areas and activity sectors. Work done in 2019 will allow the introduction of the objectives to the Region’s directorates, and initial discussions with groups of public and private. In 2020, intent and framing work will allow to build an understanding of current systems to be addressed, gaps and needs for transformation, potential levers of change and learning opportunities. An innovation action portfolio brief and roadmap for implementation for Nouvelle-Aquitaine will be developed by the end of 2020.

Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the merger of former regions Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes, is not only a broad territory (larger area than Austria or the Czech Republic, larger population than Denmark, Finland or Norway), but also a diversified one: a variety of coastal regional landscapes and of agricultural systems, man- landscaped marshes, medium-mountain as well as high-mountain areas.
For such a territory, getting into a deeper and more consistent approach of adaptation and resilience at regional scales is a great challenge.
The objective of this project is to tackle such difficulty with a team of experts working as a co-designer with EIT Climate-KIC on this fundamental topic, as yet relatively neglected by academic scientific communities and on which a deeply novel, systemic, cross- disciplinary and holistic approach is challenging to develop but urgently needed.

The Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre is supporting the Deep Demonstration process: “Forging Resilience in some of Europe’s Most Vulnerable Regions”. In the course of this project we will focus on two key areas: A. Engaging in creative process design and facilitation in both the design and implementation phase. B. Exploring innovative tools for transformative dialogue in the design and implementation phase. The project focused on the development of innovative tools and approaches for dialogue and systems transformation in three distinct ways: 1. Developing and sharing inspiring approaches for systems transformation 2. Co-designing innovative processes within the partner regions 3. Developing the capacity of partners and stakeholders to facilitate innovative dialogue

In 2019 we have set a solid foundation by looking at the current state-of-play through a deep understanding of the specificities of the Port of Piraeus ‘maritime system. This initial step allows us, in a co-design process with the port, to develop a systemic future vision and a transition pathway, setting up the base for the FRAME phase of the Deep Demonstration process.

In 2020 we will finalize this work by reinforcing the roadmap co-created with the port and continue to define the field of innovation action needed to reach the port’s vision.

The maritime sector accounts for 90% of global trade and 2.2% of global GHG emissions – a figure projected to increase threefold by 2050. Within the Deep Demonstration for maritime hubs, the port of Piraeus is working with other ambitious partners on land (Port of Valencia) and at sea (Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Shipping) who share a common ambition to create a circular, inclusive, net-zero-emissions maritime sector. The Port of Piraeus and its partners have been carefully selected to reflect different geographical, economic & social environments and different development stage in their environmental strategies and activities.
In 2019 we have set solid foundation by looking at the current state-of-play through a deep understanding of the specificities of the Port of Piraeus ‘maritime system. This initial step allows us, in a co-design process with the port, to develop a systemic future vision and a transition pathway, setting up the base for the FRAME phase.
In 2020 we will finalize this work by reinforcing the roadmap co-created with the port, and continue to define the field of innovation action needed to reach the port’s vision. We will look for instance at innovations and alternative solutions related to mobility, and in the field of alternative sources of energy and reduction of energy consumption. At the same time the iterative, participative approach taken by this project will allow us, throughout a process of constant building of understanding (involvement of the relevant stakeholders at each steps of the process to provide constant feedback), to explore alternative fields of innovations which might be better suited to ultimately reach the port’s vision.
These steps will allow us in the following years to develop an experiment portfolio, supported by EIT Climate-KIC network, for our prioritized areas to test impactful solutions, support mutual learning and communicate our work to a wider audience, with the aim to replicate similar transformation globally

This project is intended to continue and complete the work initiated in 2019 in the Dolomites territories, aiming at transformative changes towards resilient territories, leveraging on the political momentum given by the intensification of climate-related extreme events.
Dolomite communities are experiencing rapid change (e.g. technological, ecological, and demographic). While some of these changes are promoting development in mountain areas, others result in significant pressure on sensitive territories. A recent exceptional wind storm (“Vaia”) affected forest-wood value chain as well as interlinked activities (i.e. tourism). The recovery phase is offering the chance to rethink how to build the resilience of the local communities.
A listening phase has already been completed in 2019, involving public and private problem owners coming from different geographical areas and different economic sectors (mainly agro-forestry, manufacturing, tourism) into an overview on perceptions and preparedness of Dolomite communities about extreme weather conditions and related consequences, in terms of practices and available solutions.
After that, the intent is to enhance the resilience in the interested territories by focusing actions inspired by visions of local desirable futures (2040), considering the uncertainties and a variety of scenarios, that is generated by roadmapping with local actors.
We will close the INTENT phase at the end of April 2020 with the definition of at least one MoU signed by local strategic actors.
After a dedicated meeting in June, the FRAME phase will proceed with a mapping and a roadmapping exercise with relevant stakeholders willing to invest in their resilience/adaptation strategies. It will end with the definition of portfolio principles and composition, validated and presented in a second event in Autumn.

The way that cities currently work is through building a climate plan and then identifying isolated solutions to work towards an end goal. The work through the Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstration is starting from the point of the city’s existing climate plan, but then challenging the model of delivery, as well as some of the underlying assumptions within it; the aim of which is to provide for a more aggressive approach to accelerating the route to net zero (this might include new governance models centred around climate transition, new processes to engage citizens or the development of financing models). This KAVA will therefore take some time to work through the intent and frame stages of the Deep Demonstration methodology, avoiding a rush to settle on solutions, but working out what the city is aiming for in the way of outcomes. Once this has been completed then the city cohort will be in a good position to go out to the EIT Climate-KIC community (and the wider market) with a call to action – at this stage we will build a portfolio of experiments with each challenge owner. We will raise funds to complement the EIT grant and select a portfolio of projects that will produce new products, processes, services, tools, start-ups etc, which will be supplied to the challenge owner, associated customers and other similar stakeholders.

Huge potential for using Deep Demo Vienna as testbed to create or expand activities and programs together (i.e. around entrepreneurship, citizen engagement, Climathon). If the Deep Demo Vienna goes well, this will open doors to other challenge owners and possibly funders on different levels.
Activities in 2019 (ClimateHub initiative, ecosystem meetings) were designed to build up an active ecosystem of partners and supporters all over Austria on different levels. These initiatives need to be brought together in 2020 to synergize and create a critical mass of people and organizations for systemic innovation.
It should be noted that our office in Vienna could definitely act as local hub for activities in Slovenia, Slovakia and Czechia if needed. Also, a new government started working in the beginning of 2020. This will most probably give us a new angle for our activities on a national level.

The DRIVE 2 project is a demonstration project of the transport system developed within the H2020 Easily diStributed Personal RapId Transit (ESPRIT) project. It enables the users to complement a public transport trip way by using a shared public vehicle driven directly to its destination. ESPRIT is based on an electric quadricyle that can be stacked together and that can be redistributed as roadtrains. Redistributing 8 to 10 vehicles at a time by a single operator, enables to achieve a continuous availability of vehicles for the users, to secure the reliability of the service and the customer loyalty. Preliminary conclusions show that the ESPRIT could efficiently complement public transport by addressing 5 to 20% of the trips depending on the configuration.
To address this potential, the system will go through various evaluations based on two demontrations located in Lyon: one in the Vallée de la Chimie industrial area, and another demonstration on public roads in Lyon.
150 people will fully experience the system. The user and operator acceptance of the processes will be studied. The needed modifications of the system/service will be defined according to the customer feedback.
The project will also be the opportunity to improve the business model by studying new innovative vehicle redistribution processes involving the users and modelling their effect.
DRIVE2 will also be the showcase to raise the awareness on the benefits brought by the system and liaise with the authorities and the road approval laboratories.

This proposal outlines Dark Matter Laboratories’ contributions to the joint efforts of the collaborative design team, the output of which will be a portfolio of options. The systems challenge we are seeking to address is the multiple deep code errors which embed short-term action and thinking into a range of situations, from corporate activities to policy-makers.

This proposal aims to contribute to our collaborative design of a portfolio of robust hypotheses through a mixture of desk-research, deployment of our capabilities in
system thinking and complexity mapping, as well as targeted ‘experimental research probes’ (smart wills, future-oriented parliaments, repair economies etc.) which uses ideas of potential mechanisms to address this short-termism. These probes are in no way meant to be ‘solutions’, but rather thought experiments that can help us in exploring a portfolio of well-designed options, as well as support the identification of problem owners.

Our activities will be focused on how to gain learnings, for EIT Climate-KIC and a broader audience, on how our institutional infrastructure manifests short-termism; and how we could change that. These experimental research probes will also help to open up system boundaries areas/hypotheses we haven’t looked at before. They will be complemented by background desk research on the many topics that we’ve brought up in our previous design meetings (from the impact of property rights to that of language).

It also suggests a series of activities to open up these dialogues to a wider audience, through a mixture of blogs and sense-making workshops, to test out our narratives and probes with different stake-holders and potential problem owners. From our experience of co-creating movements across a range of challenges and contexts, from mental health in Stockholm to childhood outcomes in Birmingham, we believe that well-prepared workshops and communications is fundamental to developing this portfolio.

The way that cities currently work is through building a climate plan and then identifying isolated solutions to work towards an end goal. The work through the Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstration is starting from the point of the city’s existing climate plan, but then challenging the model of delivery, as well as some of the underlying assumptions within it; the aim of which is to provide for a more aggressive approach to accelerating the route to net zero (this might include new governance models centred around climate transition, new processes to engage citizens or the development of financing models). This KAVA will therefore take some time to work through the intent and frame stages of the Deep Demonstration methodology, avoiding a rush to settle on solutions, but working out what the city is aiming for in the way of outcomes. Once this has been completed then the city cohort will be in a good position to go out to the EIT Climate-KIC community (and the wider market) with a call to action – at this stage we will build a portfolio of experiments with Edinburgh. We will raise funds to complement the EIT grant and select a portfolio of projects that will produce new products, processes, services, tools, start-ups etc, which will be supplied to the challenge owner, associated customers and other similar stakeholders.