On June 18th , Wroclaw Tech hosted the event “EU Mission Adaptation to Climate Change Workshop”, as part of Unite!Widening project launched in January 2024 and designed to become part of the European University Alliance Unite! ecosystem.
The Unite!Widening project is a complementary effort within the European University Alliance Unite! consortium. This includes nine universities, with two from Poland and Portugal, and four industrial partners also from these countries. The project’s goal is to enhance the scientific, technological, and innovation capacity of the consortium, implementing ERA/Widening policies.
As part of the Unite!Widening project, the workshop: “EU Mission Adaptation to climate change” held at Wroclaw Tech was the third one organized after two others events, which took place in the last three months. The first one was held in March in Portugal at ULisboa’s Técnico Lisboa and the second one in May in Italy at the Politecnico di Torino.
The workshop goal and subject
The goal of the workshop was to present the main assumptions and current calls under the Mission Adaptation to Climate Change, particularly addressing the Widening countries. The program included hybrid workshops aimed at identifying strategic research areas to increase participation in research and development projects driving the green transformation, with an emphasis on climate change adaptation.
The program included:
- A roundtable on the Mission Adaptation in Widening countries, covering calls, projects, support, and strategies, moderated by Barbara Widera (Wrocław University of Science and Technology, member of the EU Mission Adaptation to Climate Change). The speakers were Magdalena Głogowska, Karina Barantseva and Katarzyna Buszkiewicz-Seferyńska.
- The speech of Elina Bardram, Mission Manager of the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change.
- Workshops designed to identify strategic research areas and present their results, contributing to policy recommendations.
The workshop resulted in the following proposed actions:
- Raising societal awareness about climate change,
- Reducing fossil fuel usage in the economy,
- Increasing climate adaptations in buildings,
- Engaging companies from specific sectors, such as biotech, including start-ups
Additionally, several recommendations were specified, like for exmaple: the need for cross-cutting calls for all Missions, combining different sources of funding, including national and regional levels, support for the preparation of applications, implementing a solution used already in Spain: vouchers for consulting services, including pre-screening, exchanging information and best practices for supporting applications with Unite! partners, especially those from Widening countries (Portugal) and increasing the amount of grants (“grants for grants”) available for the preparation of project applications
The “EU Mission Adaptation to Climate Change” workshop fostered collaboration and innovative thinking, laying the groundwork for impactful climate action across Europe.
The workshop was conducted in a hybrid format, allowing participants to join either onsite or online. Facilitators were appointed to stimulate participant engagement and guide workshop activities. The “EU Mission Adaptation to Climate Change” workshop fostered collaboration, innovative thinking, sharing ideas about climate action across Europe.
