Strengthening skills and capacity for the deployment of EU Missions

The Horizon Europe mission "Adaptation to Climate Change" promotes innovative solutions to make regions and municipalities across Europe more resilient to the impacts of extreme weather events. A key focus is on the further development and dissemination of an open, multi-level assessment framework for climate-related risks, along with associated digital tools. These tools are optimized in collaboration with local authorities and provided as open-source offerings to enable comprehensive risk assessments on a wide scale. Through a tiered funding model, numerous regional and municipal actors receive grants to independently conduct comprehensive climate risk analyses based on this framework. This creates a solid foundation for tailored adaptation strategies that are recognized and implemented by all stakeholders. In parallel, best-practice approaches from coastal regions, municipalities, and cities are consolidated to test and scale targeted measures against rising temperatures, flooding, and coastal erosion.

Another focus lies on networking and training municipal experts: Through a Europe-wide support network, information and learning resources are provided, utilized by political decision-makers and specialized authorities as well as social initiatives and citizens. Participatory workshops integrate local knowledge to develop fair and sustainable adaptation measures. Additionally, start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are involved in the development of climate-resilient technologies to accelerate innovation cycles and reduce investment barriers. Finally, a monitoring system ensures transparent success evaluation at the regional level and delivers important insights for future planning as well as a Europe-wide policy and funding framework.