CLIMB-FOREST suggests alternative sustainable short-, mid-, and long-term pathways for the forest sector to mitigate climate change in entire Europe, considering preservation of biodiversity, ecosystem services, bioeconomy, socioeconomic factors, use of long-lived wood products, and barriers for change. It will have long-term impact by creating attitude change in the policymaking process in the EU and influence foresters to adopt to new forest management strategies. This is accomplished through several work packages closely interrelated: We aim to 1) make a conclusive map of current forestry and management in Europe, 2) gather data and enhance process understanding of carbon uptake, sinks and other factors impacting on climate at intensively researched forest field site infrastructures, 3) quantify the bioeconomy, and customer and forest industry preferences for alternative wood products and management practices, 4) perform pan-European modelling of scenarios, and the environmental and climate impact of alternative pathways for European forestry, 5) ensure adaptation to new management strategies and forest preservation owing to intense field site visits in geographically representative locations in Europe, and 6) synthesize and disseminate the CLIMB-FOREST outcomes tailored for impact on the entire forest sector. The unique strength of the CLIMB-FOREST initiative and the potential to secure future impact, lies mainly in four crucial factors; 1) the unprecedented mapping of current forestry, management and carbon sequestration, 2) the quantification of all biogeochemical and biophysical processes in the forest, which is instrumental to the understanding of climate effects in the forest, 3) the beyond the state-of-the-art modelling that involves all socioeconomic and physical factors, and agents acting in the forest sector, and 4) the multi-actor stakeholder co-creation process generating knowledge transfer and means of change in the forestry sector.

The proposed project “Readiness of ICOS for Necessities of integrated Global Observations” (RINGO) aims to further development of ICOS RI and ICOS ERIC and foster its sustainability. The challenges are to further develop the readiness of ICOS RI along five principal objectives: 1. Scientific readiness. To support the further consolidation of the observational networks and enhance their quality. This objective is mainly science-guided and will increase the readiness of ICOS RI to be the European pillar in a global observation system on greenhouse gases. 2. Geographical readiness. To enhance ICOS membership and sustainability by supporting interested countries to build a national consortium, to promote ICOS towards the national stakeholders, to receive consultancy e.g. on possibilities to use EU structural fund to build the infrastructure for ICOS observations and also to receive training to improve the readiness of the scientists to work inside ICOS. 3. Technological readiness. To further develop and standardize technologies for greenhouse gas observations necessary to foster new knowledge demands and to account for and contribute to technological advances. 4. Data readiness. To improve data streams towards different user groups, adapting to the developing and dynamic (web) standards. 5. Political and administrative readiness. To deepen the global cooperation of observational infrastructures and with that the common societal impact. Impact is expected on the further development and sustainability of ICOS via scientific, technical and managerial progress and by deepening the integration into global observation and data integration systems.

PLUS Change brings together 23 institutions from across Europe including 5 Universities, 5 research institutes, 3 stakeholder network organisations, 1 performing arts collective, and 9 practice partners representing regional planning and land management authorities and organisations. The objectives directly address the call with an aim to create land use strategies and decision-making processes that meet climate, biodiversity and human well-being objectives of sustainability, and to develop interventions that leverage political, economic, societal, material and cultural contexts to achieve these strategies, by involving actors at multiple decision-making levels (individual, land management, planning, policy). Activities include land use modelling (including historical and future trajectories of change), systems mapping, causal loop diagrams, performing arts approaches, randomized controlled trials of behaviour change, sociological surveys, and policy and governance reviews. All activities brought together in an integrated research design that draws on their different contributions to a holistic approach to understand multi-scale land use systems across a diversity of socioeconomic and biogeographical contexts, and create usable tools for land managers, users, planners and policy makers. The project is anchored in, and integrated through, 11 location-based cases for co-creation, and in a high-level multiplier cluster to identify challenges and impacts at EU and Global levels. Outputs include recommendations of co-designed and tested interventions to unlock behavioural, structural and procedural changes to achieve identified land use strategies; and a toolkit to support land use planners in enacting these interventions, including knowledge training, a planning dashboard and simulation tools, and methods for engaging citizens and land managers in behaviour change.

The New Delivery Model established in Regulation EU 2115/2021 entails significant changes to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) governance with the introduction of Strategic Plans and new monitoring, review and evaluation requirements. The CAP is expected to contribute significantly to the Green Deal’s ambitions, securing the achievement of sustainability and resilience goals for the EU’s Agri-food systems. Innovative governance models are essential to enable result-based policymaking to deliver the best policy pathways to facilitate the green transition. Tools4CAP will (1) support the implementation of National Strategic Plans 2023-2027, and (2) lay the foundations for sound preparation of Post-2027 Strategic Plans. Accordingly, Tools4CAP establishes a flexible and participatory Coordination & Support Action designed to boost learning, exchange processes, and adoption of innovative solutions and good practices for the design, monitoring and evaluation of CAP Strategic Plans. Tools4CAP’s methods and tools will cover three key areas: (1) quantitative modelling tools for ex-ante and ex-post evaluations, (2) participatory and multi-governance decision tools, and (3) novel data and monitoring solutions. The project will deliver a comprehensive inventory of methods and tools used in the 27 Member States, methodological guidelines on innovative solutions and a Handbook of good practices. Results will be integrated in a Capacity Building Toolkit, designed to enhance science-policy interfaces. Tools4CAP utilises a Stakeholder Engagement Platform to boost bottom-up adaptation of innovative methods and tools. It will establish a Replication Lab to demonstrate their use in 10 Member States and to promote their uptake across the EU-27. The project will also set up a Capacity Building Hub to help end-users (ministries, management authorities, paying agencies, other stakeholders) reinforce their capacity to use innovative tools, including models used by the European Commission.