How can climate change be tackled in an equitable and inclusive manner? The effects of climate change hit communities hard, but not all regions have the same resources or capacity to adapt. The disparity in perception and response to these phenomena is particularly evident between the eastern and western regions of Europe, highlighting the need for more targeted and inclusive solutions.
In just over a year, the ClearClimate project has successfully completed over 33 months of mobility through the exchange of researchers and staff among partner organizations. During these mobility periods, researchers carried out collaborative studies focused on the project’s central question: How can we make climate information services more efficient and understandable for different users?
The recent meeting in Barcelona, held on December 3rd and 4th at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, marked a significant moment for sharing project progress. Researchers from universities, NGOs, and businesses addressed this question through innovative and interdisciplinary research approaches.
One of the workstreams, coordinated by the University of Wageningen, aims to improve the development and delivery of climate information services to users, with a particular focus on extreme events such as droughts and heatwaves. This approach emphasizes co-creation and customization of services based on the needs of end-users. At the same time, efforts are underway to integrate local and scientific knowledge into user-centered climate services. CESIE, in particular, has focused its research on the application of climate information services (CIS) in the agroecology sector in Sicily.
Other partners, such as Predictia, are concentrating on using explainable artificial intelligence to develop high-resolution climate data. Predictia, a center specialized in data modeling, management, and visualization, employs AI techniques to produce high-quality regional climate projections.
In the realm of AI, another area of CESIE’s research involves developing educational materials on climate change for children, leveraging AI’s capabilities.
Previsico, on the other hand, is coordinating research on the temporal downscaling of extreme events, using innovative approaches for application testing in the Balkans.
SWPS University is exploring the use of storytelling to communicate extreme climate events and their role in climate information services. Advanced techniques, such as eye tracking and neuromarketing, are being employed to better understand user engagement. The main objectives of this activity include: analyzing users’ visual attention patterns, measuring emotional responses to various aspects of climate information services, and understanding decision-making processes based on climate information.
Eye tracking was a key focus of a recent online technical training, during which participants learned how to analyze visual responses to CIS images and maps. This method enables the assessment of the effectiveness of visual representations, even for non-expert audiences.
The secondments, or mobility periods among partners, will continue in the coming months, fostering knowledge exchange and multiplying research opportunities. The next in-person consortium meeting is scheduled for April 2025 in Novi Sad, Serbia.
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About the project
ClearClimate – Engaging approaches and services for meaningful climate actions is a project funded by European Research Executive Agency (REA), Horizon Europe, MSCA Staff Exchanges 2022.
Partners
- University of Novi Sad Faculty of Sciences (Serbia) – Coordinator
- Wageningen University (Netherlands)
- Loughborough University (United Kingdom)
- Universitat Autonoma De Barcelona (Spain)
- Swps Uniwersytet (Poland)
- Climate Adaptation Services (Netherlands)
- Predictia Intelligent Data Solutions (Spain)
- University for Development Studies (Ghana)
- Previsico LTD (United Kingdom)
- CESIE (Italy)
For further information
Read more about the project, visit the web site https://clear-climate.com/ and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin.
Contact Caterina Impastato: caterina.impastato@cesie.org.