Bridging the gap between disaster risk management and climate adaptation

Expected Outcome:

The successful proposal will contribute to the implementation of the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, the Preparedness Union Strategy and the upcoming European Climate Adaptation Plan, by facilitating the interaction between the actors of the Climate Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management at European, national and regional scales.

Proposals are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• The Climate Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management communities at European level are brought together to develop inter- and transdisciplinary methodological approaches, constructing and disseminating joint knowledge.
• The knowledge and understanding of the common aspects for Disaster Risk Management preparedness and climate change adaptation are enhanced, including the question of responsibility and accountability.
• The terminology and understanding of the risks and the possible solutions are aligned for Disaster Risk Management and Adaptation and hence local resilience to climate change is improved.

Scope:

Rationale

The goal of this action is to strengthen collaboration between the Climate Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management communities. This will enable the Mission and the Disaster Risk Management community to disseminate their innovative solutions in support of the implementation of the EU Preparedness Union Strategy and the upcoming European Climate Adaptation Plan.

This action is fully in line with the recommendation from the Niinistö report for “creating stronger structural links to bridge the gap between research, innovation and deployment”.

Activities of the project

The project should address all of the following areas:

• Facilitate a common understanding of climate risks and possible solutions and improve the exchange of knowledge and cooperation.
• Produce guidelines and recommendations for regional and local authorities to define and implement integrated risks management policies that fully account for climate adaptation.
• Identify and harvest knowledge and solutions relevant for both communities, from related Horizon Europe projects, other EU funding programmes (e.g. UCPM, Interreg, LIFE) or legacy projects from Horizon 2020. Particular attention should be given to projects funded by Horizon Europe’s calls of the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change and Cluster 3: Disaster-Resilient Society (CL3-DRS) and by UCPM’s calls of Knowledge for Action in Prevention and Preparedness.
• Implement a multi-governance approach that will also help disseminate existing knowledge beyond the regions directly served by the Mission, via the National Adaptation Hubs^[1]. In this context, the proposal should map relevant stakeholders and identify the right grouping and pairing of participants to bring the knowledge they acquired by participating in an EU funded projects to other regions in the EU, with particular attention to the inclusion and needs of vulnerable regions.
• Support and closely cooperate with the ongoing Mission Implementation Platform^[2] (in close contact with the Mission Secretariat), the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network (and its Secretariat), as well as the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS) and its Disaster Resilient Societies (DRS) platform to avoid duplications of activities. This includes relying on existing activities of the Commission’s Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre, of MIP4Adapt and the project funded under HORIZON-MISS-2026-01-CLIMA-01 with a view to strengthen cooperation.
• Organize European Climate Change Adaptation Conferences (ECCA) in 2028 and 2030, in consultation with the European Commission.

[1] Established by HORIZON-MISS-2024-CLIMA-01-02 and extended by HORIZON-MISS-2026-01-CLIMA-01

[2] Initially established by MIP4Adapt and extended under the contract CINEA/2025/OP/0014