The 6th European Climate Change Adaptation Conference took place from June 19 to 21 in Dublin, Ireland around the theme of ‘Actionable Knowledge for a Climate Resilient Europe’. Directed partners Lydia Cumiskey from MaREI, University College Cork (UCC) and Rosie Witton, Stockholm Environment Institute were in attendance, interacting with over 400 representatives working on climate adaptation across science, policy and practice.
Directed was presented during the interactive networking session Connect4 Adaptation, as an example of an engaged research project that connects scientific knowledge directly with practitioners and policymakers through knowledge co-production processes. During the session around 50 participants from government, academia, and NGOs engaged in ‘creative networking’ to explore what climate adaptation means to them and played Connect4Adaptation to identify challenges and opportunities for making connections across their climate adaptation work. The results demonstrated the need for building bridges across sectors, disciplines and levels of governance to connect knowledge and resources, and the need to continuously strengthen collaboration and learning towards transformational change. An online poster about Directed was also available online, highlighting Risk-Tandem, a framework being developed to help address this need for collaborative risk governance and knowledge co-production to enhance disaster and climate resilience.
The importance of engaging with the creative and arts community to enhance communication and engagement around climate adaptation was evident throughout the conference. Sessions brought to the forefront the value of storytelling through folk music, poetry, art and theatre, to connect on an emotional level and collectively encourage action to manage climate extremes. For example, during the Art and Adaptation session, Directed colleagues joined together with colleagues from a sister EU Horizon project ‘The Hut’ to create a visual representation of the interaction between lichen and asphalt up to 2050. These interactive and arts-based methods are expected to inspire the Directed knowledge co-production process in the Real World Labs.