FUTURESILIENCE – Open call for pilots

Description

Organised in co-creation mode and guided by a group of experts from the consortium, each Future Resilience lab will address challenges they face from internal or external shocks[1]. The experimentation will result in the uptake and tailoring of existing solutions and design of novel ones to address the challenges of the pilot case, looking to increase future preparedness and resilience. The guiding questions to frame the project could include: what would be a major challenge/shock to which your [e.g. city, region, organisation] would be most vulnerable to, given the existing capacities? How is the challenge interrelated with other existing problems? What solutions have been implemented that contributed to mitigate the impact? What can be changed in order to be better prepared for the future? What are the gaps that should be addressed to build resilience and strengthen absorptive and transformative capacities? Indicatively, the following table may serve as a reference, structured by areas and challenges that are may be impacted by different types of shocks: Urban development: housing as human right; difficulties in implementing green or digital solutions in remote regions; gentrification and inequalities; unsustainable concentration of population in urban centres / unsustainable urban sprawl Agriculture: access to climate-friendly technology; shifts to sustainable food production systems; producing food with less water; preserving food biodiversity; addressing land-use conflicts Mobility: transitioning to net-zero policies; use of data to improve mobility solutions; sustainable mobility systems (safe, affordable, accessible, low-emission, climate neutral); traffic reduction (e.g. freight transport) Health: shifting to digital health, linking to environmental and social implications of doing so; supply chain disruptions due to material shortages; facing pathogens X Welfare: ageing population and migration (including refugees, mass movement of people, displacement); social protection; tax systems; greed vs. solidarity; financial disruptions Industries: access to critical material; inefficiency of supply chain; skill gaps in a changing labour market; beyond growth; sustainable value creation models; technology disruptions Environment; increasing extreme-weather events (heatwaves, flooding, etc.); increasing loss of biodiversity; water resilience; increased stress on water/energy/food supplies; supply of materials for digital transitions Applicants may apply for one or more of the listed areas or address additional specific topics for which they have identified a potential societal and transformational impact in terms of building or strengthening resilience. We welcome applications that work with cross-cutting areas and interrelated uncertainties, looking to create interlinkages among multiple topics (i.e. energy and mobility or housing and inequalities, etc.) [1] By shock, we understand this widely, including multiple types of risks included, for instance, in the Global Risk Report by the World Bank: https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-risks-report-2023/

Beneficiary & submission

The FUTURESILIENCE project aims to strengthen Europe's economic and social resilience and, thereby, its ability to respond to future crises rapidly. This will be accomplished by facilitating a rapid and effective use of policy-relevant R&I findings for national, regional, and local actors. At the project's core is an experimentation phase that will include 10 Future Resilience labs working with foresight and participative methodologies to tackle a range of challenges. The experimentation approach will shed light on the future risks that Europe may face and uncover vulnerabilities in the different cases. As part of the experimentation phase, the FUTURESILIENCE project will provide financial support to third parties to achieve its objectives. Third-party projects (pilot cases) may only receive financial support if they work on areas that foster societal resilience. See description in task description. This open call will fund 7 additional pilot cases. The maximum award to any single third-party will be €60,000 over the life-time of the FUTURESILIENCE project. The criteria for determining the exact amount of the financial support is defined in section 5.2 of the Guide for Applicants. The application guidelines present a step-by-step process for the application. Each application should be done using the application form. No further sections beyond those requested will be considered in the application. Proposals should not be longer than 10 pages, annexes excluded. The evaluation procedure of the proposals is set out in the Guide for Applicants. It will include three evaluation steps: eligibility check, experts’ individual evaluation and finally a panel decision, followed by submission to EC for final approval. Signature of approved third-party grants is expected early 2024. Technical evaluation criteria for proposals will include: Excellence (50% weight): (a) coherence of objectives, concept, approach and ambition of the proposal, (b) alignment of the topic selected with the call text/identified thematic priorities, (c) sectoral-focus and cross-cutting nature, (d) relevance to societal, gender, cultural diversity, environmental and IPR-related issues, (e) possibility to mobilise sectoral/multilevel stakeholders, (f) sustainability approach to the process. Experience (20% weight): Track record and previous experience of the team with co-creation activities and participative methodologies, relevance and added value, composition of the team. Feasibility and implementation (30% weight): management strategy, availability of resources (personnel, facilities, networks, etc.); realistic timeframe and comprehensive description of implementation (milestones, risk management).

Further information

The FUTURESILIENCE consortium will organise a number of webinars and be present at a number of events during the period June-July 2023 to discuss with interested applicants. Please check the FUTURESILIENCE open call pages at www.futuresilience.eu & follow our social media accounts: https://twitter.com/futuresilience or https://www.linkedin.com/company/futuresilience/ if you would like to register for one of these sessions. For further information on the call or if you have any doubts relating to the eligibility rules or the information that is to be provided in the application form, please contact the Support Team: contact@futuresilience.eu