About the project
To make climate-smart decisions that counter current extreme climate events and future climatic changes, all actors need tailored climate information that is relevant to their needs.
While climate science is developed ona global scale, it often overlooks local needs, knowledge and . This disconnect can limit the usefulness of climate information for those on the ground.
I-CISK aims to bridge this gap by innovating how climate services (the climate information and tools that support decision-making) are developed. The project is co-producing climate services by involving all actors of the climate service value chain, with significant contribution from key stakeholders and end-users representing multiple sectors of economy.
Figure 1: Climate Services Value Chain
Description of success
As part of its work, I-CISK formed seven living labs across Europe (Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Greece, Georgia) and Africa (Lesotho), in diverse geographical regions that are particularly sensitive to climate change (semi‐arid, deltas and snow pack dependent river basins). Each living lab was designed to tackle local area-specific challenges with the involvement of the end-users of climate services. Across these living labs, the project successfully established seven Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs), collaborative systems that join together diverse stakeholders to address complex issues through dialogue, co-design, and co-creation.
Figure 2: The locations of I-CISK living labs
In these MAPs over 50 stakeholder organisations and more than 100 individuals voluntarily worked with I-CISK to co‐create climate services relevant to their needs and desired spatial and temporal scales. Key actors involved in the MAPs represent a broad spectrum of policy and decision-makers, academia and research, business and industry and citizens and civil society organisations. Their involvement showcases responsible research and innovation approaches in action as these are core actors in the climate service value chain (Providers, Purveyors and Users). The MAPs have made highly valuable contributions in the co-creation process and outputs, among others, their input was instrumental in co-creation of the fifteen climate services in the seven living labs of I-CISK.
Figure 3: Key stakeholders represented in the I-CISK’s Multi-Actor Platforms in seven living labs
These user-centred climate services aim to enable stakeholders from various sectors of economy such as water management, agriculture, tourism, energy and environment to address challenges posed by various climatic hazards (e.g., droughts, water scarcity, floods and heatwaves). A novel feature and value addition of most of these climate services is the integration of local data and local knowledge provided by the MAP members alongside global and scientific data, knowledge and tools such as those available through the EU’s Copernicus programme.
Highlights
Seven MAPs were successfully established and operationalised in diverse geographical and climate change hotspot regions in the EU and beyond.
In the MAPs, over 50 stakeholder organisations and more than 100 individuals have voluntarily worked with the I-CISK project partners to co‐create climate services relevant to their needs.
MAP members have made highly valuable contributions to I-CISK’s co-creation process and outputs, such as the user-centred design of its open-access web-based climate service platform.
The co-creation approaches developed by I-CISK in its living labs, including collaboration with MAPs, can be used to develop next generation of climate services and have the potential to enable citizens, stakeholders and decision-makers to factor climate change and action into their own decisions.
Figure 4: Meeting with the Georgian living lab Multi-Actor Platform
Outputs
I-CISK has published various resources that are available to download on its website. These include reports on the characterisation of the project’s living labs, co-designing user-driven climate services, and climate service implementation and business development.
Impact
I-CISK havs empowered MAP members and other stakeholders involved in the living labs to make well-informed decisions that address risks from multiple climatic hazards. Furthermore, coordination and collaboration between stakeholders has been improved within the living labs. Learning was fostered both within and between the living labs, which enhanced knowledge and technical capacity.
Overall, the MAPs have contributed to a change in how climate services and their associated knowledge and information are used, and allow climate service users (e.g. MAPs participants) to become active contributors to climate action.
Figure 5: An online meeting with the Italian living lab Multi-Actor Platform
Lessons
Several important lessons have been learnt throughout the course of the MAPs process that serve future efforts:
Establishing and operationalising MAPs can be a slow process, but it is worthwhile to take the required time and effort to organise them.
The I-CISK co-creation framework has been a very helpful guide and was applied in a flexible and context sensitive manner.
The careful selection of a diverse range of activities and formats (e.g., in-person/online meetings, workshops, surveys) and efficient scheduling of activities with MAPs members have been crucial to meaningfully engage others in the co-creation process while minimising stakeholder fatigue.
The role of living lab lead teams was pivotal in organising project activities involving MAPs. Their commitment to the project objectives and profound dedication greatly contributed to bridging gaps in understanding among climate services developers and end-users.
Figure 6: Stakeholder workshop in Lesotho
Other information
The time and effort spent was much higher than planned on conducting project activities in the living labs, including those involving MAPs. Flexibility within EU project administration system and dedication of all the stakeholders were very helpful to overcome these challenges.
