Coastal Communities

EmpowerUs project launched to enable coastal communities to act for change

The European Union has launched an exciting new research project to empower coastal communities to transition towards more sustainable, inclusive and resilient coastal development. EmpowerUs (Socio-economic Empowerment of coastal communities as users of the sea to ensure sustainable coastal development) is a €6 million project that launched under the EU Horizon Europe Programme on 1st October 2022 and will run for three years. Coastal communities face many challenges including extreme weather associated with climate change, rising sea levels, tourism pressures, changing fisheries and traditional industries and how to adapt to sustainable economic development. Recognising that these complex challenges require multiple, integrated solutions, EmpowerUs is a multidisciplinary, collaborative project that will support coastal communities in their transition to becoming more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. Working with local, regional, national and international stakeholders, EmpowerUs will co-create, pilot and evaluate Tailored Empowerment Programmes to support coastal communities in their transformation towards becoming more sustainable. The Programmes will include a portfolio of flexible, transdisciplinary tools to support social innovations that increase socio-economic resilience, well-being and job opportunities for a diverse range of community members, ensuring that nobody is left behind. In addition, practical guidance on implementing nature-based solutions to address environmental problems will enable communities to take ownership of their climate resilience. The Programmes will be implemented across a network of six pilot sites located in Bulgaria (Burgas Province), Cyprus (Eastern Limassol Region), Finland (Åland Islands), Ireland (West Coast), Norway (North), and Spain (North-western Mediterranean). Tools from the Empowerment Programmes will be shared for free on a digital platform so that all coastal communities in Europe and beyond can adapt and apply the lessons learned to their own sites. EmpowerUs project coordinator, Dr Maiken Bjørkan, Research Professor at Nordland Research Institute (Norway), said: “Living by the sea, I’ve witnessed first-hand the social, economic and environmental challenges faced by coastal communities. To solve these problems, we have to work together. Merging the multidisciplinary background of the EmpowerUs team together with the lived experience and expertise of community members will be a powerful combination. I’m excited to get the project underway!” ERINN Innovation played a key role in helping to secure funding for EmpowerUs by helping to recruit the consortia, providing proposal writing training to coordination team via ERINN’s Horizon Europe Masterclass series and helping to write and proof the final bid. During project implementation ERINN will also use its knowledge transfer expertise to lead communications, dissemination and exploitation activities for EmpowerUs, ensuring that project innovations reach their intended audiences. Michael Papapetrou, ERINN Executive Director (Ireland), said: “Working with the EmpowerUs team is a pleasure and we are proud to have played a role in gaining funding for this important research. Having been involved with the project from the start, it is exciting to see everything come together, and we look forward to sharing the innovations that arise from the project.” EmpowerUs is led by Nordland Research Institute (NRI), Norway, and brings together 16 partner organisations from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland Spain and the UK. The project will create European leadership in the socio-economic empowerment of users of the sea in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the EU Green Deal and Paris Agreement. The inaugural EmpowerUs partner meeting was held in Barcelona on 4th and 5th October. Please follow @EmpowerUs_EU on Twitter for the latest updates.

ERINN joins Horizon 2020-funded SCORE project to increase climate resilience in European coastal cities

The four year project, SCORE (Smart Control of the Climate Resilience in European Coastal Cities), outlines a comprehensive strategy, developed via a network of 10 coastal city ‘living labs’, to rapidly, equitably and sustainably enhance coastal city climate resilience though an Ecosystem-Based Approach (EBA) supported by sophisticated digital technologies. The intensification of extreme weather events, coastal erosion and sea-level rise are major challenges to be urgently addressed by European coastal cities. Deaths caused by extreme weather in Europe could rise from 3,000 a year between 1981 and 2010 to 152,000 between 2071 and 2100 if mitigation pathways are not enacted to increase the resilience of European cities and settlements, based on a study in The Lancet Planetary Health journal. To tackle this challenge, SCORE coordinated by Dr Salem Gharbia from the Institute of Technology Sligo (Ireland), will lead a consortium of international scientific institutions, cities, and SMEs in a new €10m Horizon 2020-funded research project to increase climate resilience in European coastal cities. The SCORE interdisciplinary team consists of 28 world-leading organisations from academia, local authorities, Research Performing Organisations, and SMEs encompassing a wide range of skills including environmental science and policy, climate modelling, citizen and social science, data management, coastal management and engineering, security and technological aspects of smart sensing research. ERINN is part of the communications and knowledge transfer team within SCORE. Senior Project Manager, Jane Maher leads ERINN’s involvement with the project. The project will involve citizen science in providing prototype coastal city early-warning systems and will enable smart, instant monitoring and control of climate resilience in European coastal cities through open, accessible spatial ‘digital twin’ tools. The project seeks to advance the control of climate resilience in cities in Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Slovenia and Poland. After a recent “Kick-Off” meeting in July 2021 with academics from across Europe, Dr Gharbia said: “SCORE will provide Europe with expandable and transferable solutions to increase climate resilience against extreme events in coastal cities. Together with our partners, we will establish a network of coastal cities that will work together and learn from each other to tackle climate change. In SCORE we want to put every effort to mitigate the effects of climate change now and in the years ahead” SCORE will establish an integrated coastal zone management framework for strengthening the Ecosystem-Based solutions and smart coastal city policies, creating European leadership in coastal city climate change adaptation in line with The Paris Agreement. For more information on the project, please follow @SCORE_EUproject on Twitter or SCORE on LinkedIn. NOTES FOR EDITORS: ABOUT SCORE PROJECT Smart Control of the Climate Resilience in European Coastal Cities (acronym: SCORE) Call: H2020-LC-CLA-2018-2019-2020 Topic: LC-CLA-13-2020 SCORE is a €10m Horizon 2020-funded research project to increase climate resilience in European coastal cities lead by Dr Salem Gharbia of the School of Engineering & Design at IT Sligo. The overall aim of SCORE is to design, develop, monitor and validate robust adaptation measures in coastal and low-lying areas to protect them from increasing climate and sea level risks, including coastal flooding and erosion, to enhance their overall long-term resilience. SCORE outlines a co-creation strategy, developed via a network of 10 coastal city ‘living labs’ (CCLLs), to rapidly, equitably and sustainably enhance coastal city climate resilience through Ecosystem-Based Approach (EBAs) and sophisticated digital technologies. SCORE will establish an integrated coastal zone management framework for strengthening EBA and smart coastal city policies, creating European leadership in coastal city climate change adaptation in line with The Paris Agreement. SCORE will provide innovative platforms to empower stakeholders’ deployment of EBAs to increase climate resilience, business opportunities and financial sustainability of coastal cities. The SCORE interdisciplinary team consists of 28 world-leading organisations from academia, local authorities, RPOs, and SMEs encompassing a wide range of skills including environmental science and policy, climate modelling, citizen and social science, data management, coastal management and engineering, security and technological aspects of smart sensing research. SCORE is a four-year project starting in July 2021. List of cities involved in the SCORE Horizon 2020 project: Sligo and Dublin, Ireland; Barcelona, Spain; Lisbon and Oeiras, Portugal; Massa, Italy; Benidorm, Spain, Koper, Slovenia; Gdansk, Poland; and Basque Country, Spain.