JPI Climate

Joint Programming Initiatives (JPI) promote collaboration and coordination of research and development across Europe. Member states actively contribute national resources to several JPIs, which are thematically aligned with major societal challenges. They work closely with the European Commission but operate independently of it. JPI Climate ("Connecting Climate Knowledge for Europe") is an initiative of 17 EU member states and associated countries that aims to better align national programmes through joint coordination of climate research and the promotion of new transnational research activities.

CCCA's international networking platform made an important contribution here, acting at the interface between funders and researchers, and between national and international research agendas and priorities. Through strategic research coordination, the aim was to better integrate the Austrian research community — and in particular CCCA members — into the international landscape of funding opportunities and thematically relevant initiatives. To this end, the networking platform contributed to the strategic research development of JPI Climate at the transnational level on behalf of the Austrian research community.

More information about JPI Climate can be found here.

Strategic coordination of Austrian contributions to JPI Climate: Representation on the JPI Climate Governing Board on behalf of BMBWF

From 2018 to December 2024, CCCA's international networking platform represented Austria on the JPI Governing Board on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. Key thematic priorities were set on issues relevant both in Austria and across Europe. This gave the Austrian climate change research community access not only to transnational funding opportunities, but also to a wide range of networks and activities.

More information about the JPI Climate Governing Board can be found here.

Leadership of the JPI Climate AG EST (Action Group "Enabling Societal Transformation")

The operational and programmatic activities of JPI Climate (such as drafting working papers or designing calls for proposals) are carried out by Action Groups (AGs) and then approved by the Governing Board. The AG EST aims to promote the humanities and social sciences as key disciplines for sustainable societal transformation in the context of climate change. The networking platform led the AG EST on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF).

More information about the JPI Climate AG EST can be found here.

CSA Magica (Maximising the synergy of European research Governance and Innovation for Climate Action)

MAGICA aims to accelerate the development, deployment and sharing of knowledge from research and innovation to support policy decisions and climate action. This is to be achieved through better coordination of ongoing and future climate initiatives at transnational, national, regional and local levels, and more efficient use of resources. MAGICA is a transnational project with a four-year duration that launched in June 2022 and is funded by Horizon EU, and serves as the Coordination and Support Action (CSA) for JPI Climate. CCCA is in regular exchange with MAGICA through the International Networking Platform.

More information about CSA Magica can be found here.

Equinox Summit

The aim of Equinox is to accelerate the development and transfer of climate knowledge into policy in order to enable urgent action. Actors in the public and private sectors are to be given access to up-to-date information. To this end, a process for the systematic updating of scientific information is to be established together with JPI Climate.

More information about the Equinox Summit can be found here.

JPI Cultural Heritage and Global Change (JPI CH)

Cultural heritage is increasingly at risk from climate change. Global agreements such as the Paris Agreement (2015), the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022) and the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognise the potential of cultural heritage to play an active role in the transition to a more sustainable and resilient future. JPI CH supports transdisciplinary and convergent research approaches on the topic of cultural heritage and climate change. Collaboration among the research community across multiple regions is encouraged, contributing to advances in knowledge and policy change at the global level.

A Joint Call on "Climate and Cultural Heritage" (2023) was held in partnership with the Belmont Forum, covering three complementary thematic areas:

The Impact of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage (Theme 1)
Cultural Heritage as a Resource for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation (Theme 2)
Sustainable Solutions for Heritage (Theme 3)

Among the 16 funded projects, three involved Austrian partner institutions:

CuHeMo (Cultural Heritage in Motion: Indigenous Knowledge and Mobile Livelihoods in Changing Climates) AT project partner: University of Vienna, Institute of Geography and Regional Research (Consortium-leading country: Netherlands; participating countries: Austria, Thailand)
SUSTHERIT (Transformative urban heritage. Strategies for a sustainable European housing stock) Consortium-leading institution: ÖAW (participating countries: France, United Kingdom, Czech Republic)
ARCA (Biocultural Heritage in Arctic Cities: Resource for Climate Adaptation) AT project partner: University of Vienna, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (consortium-leading country: USA; participating countries: France, Norway, Austria)

More information about JPI Cultural Heritage and Global Change can be found here.

Involvement in JPI Climate calls for proposals in close collaboration with FFG

SOLSTICE

Climate research is still heavily shaped by the natural sciences, while research aimed at understanding societal processes and the potential for change is often not treated as a priority. Yet humanity urgently needs knowledge about how societal change towards a climate-friendly and socially just future can take place. The JPI Climate call SOLSTICE addressed this significant gap in the funding landscape. The call focused on three core thematic areas:

Social justice and participation
Sense-making, cultural meaning and risk perception in relation to climate change
Transformative financial and economic systems

The role of the networking platform in SOLSTICE

From August 2018, the networking platform led the strategic development of SOLSTICE on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) (scoping, development of the thematic white paper as the basis for the call, coordination of participating funding organisations, and design of the content and criteria).

Austrian project involvement

A total of €6.9 million was mobilised from ten participating countries to fund the research projects. Of the 75 projects submitted, seven were selected for funding, two of which involve Austrian project partners.

More information about SOLSTICE can be found here.

AXIS

The transnational call AXIS ("Assessment of Cross (X)-sectoral climate Impacts and pathways for Sustainable transformation") was designed as a follow-up to ERA4CS. AXIS aimed to improve the coherence, integration and robustness of climate impact research by enabling transnational, cross-community and interdisciplinary research projects. The goal is to expand the knowledge base for the transition towards a sustainable society. Three interrelated themes were to be addressed:

Cross-sectoral and cross-scale assessments of climate change impacts
Integration of assessments of biophysical climate change impacts using economic models
Development of pathways to achieve the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement, taking into account interactions with the Sustainable Development Goals (in particular SDG 13 "climate action")

The role of the networking platform in AXIS

FFG is the Austrian partner in this call on behalf of BMBWF, so the networking platform focused primarily on preparing the Austrian scientific community for the call.