Project: Unpacking climate impact CHAINs. A new generation of action- and user-oriented climate change risk assessments
| Acronym | UNCHAIN (Reference Number: SC5-30-2017) |
| Duration | 01/09/2019 - 31/08/2022 |
| Project Topic | UNCHAIN aims at further developing a practical and manageable climate change risk assessment framework based on the concept of Impact Chains. UNCHAIN will address, support and integrate a broad array of stakeholders. Its audiences are local authorities, private businesses, private home owners, and sub-national and national authorities in their capacity of supporting and facilitating local policy-making. UNCHAIN’s scientific objectives will in general contributing to enabling accurate, science based, high resolution CC risk assessments, and will in particular relate to six innovations relating to existing climate change risk assessment frameworks: (1) address a shift in adaptation focus from merely adjusting to the possible need for transforming society; (2) apply the concept of co-production of knowledge during all stages of knowledge production; (3) analyze how societal change, regardless of climate change, can affect local climate change vulnerabilities and the socio-economic consequences involved in local climate change adaptation; (4) develop a framework for an improved understanding of uncertainties involved in local decision-making on climate change adaptation, aiming to shift focus from mastering to managing such uncertainties; (5) identify risks of mal-mitigation and mal-adaptation and how to reduce such risks, and (6) identify transnational climate risks and ways to adapt to such risks. For achieving its objectives, UNCHAIN will (1) employ a number of different case studies for co-development (stakeholders, experts and researchers) and validation of methods and tools, additional capacity building by training measures like ‘train the trainers’ events, and aiding local and regional stakeholders in their CC adaptation projects; (2) employ a stakeholder-oriented process for planning and monitoring of project impacts that defines clear success criteria; and (3) generate policy briefs and a variety of web-based information resources for regional and national stakeholders. At the core of the project are cases (two cases per country) that will be used as a ‘laboratory’ to develop and test the new climate change risk assessment framework. The partners will have the main responsibility for the cases in their country, but will also be involved in cases in other countries depending on their knowledge profile. A case can be either a local authority or a (major) private business. For each of the above mentioned innovations, UNCHAIN will establish a case cluster consisting of 2-4 individual cases located in 2-4 countries, thus allowing for cross-country comparison. One individual case can take part in more than one cluster. |
| Website | visit project website |
| Network | AXIS |
| Call | AXIS Joint Call for Transnational Collaborative Research Projects 2018 |
Project partner
| Number | Name | Role | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vestlandsforsking (Western Norway Research Institute) | Coordinator | Norway |
| 2 | Wageningen University & Research | Partner | Netherlands |
| 3 | Gesellschaft für Wirtschaftliche Strukturforschung, Institute of Economic Structures Research | Partner | Germany |
| 4 | Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO) | Partner | Spain |
| 5 | Paris-Lodron University Salzburg (PLUS) | Partner | Austria |
| 6 | Nordland research Institute | Partner | Norway |
| 7 | FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. | Partner | Germany |
| 8 | Stockholm Environment Institute | Partner | Sweden |
| 9 | TEC Conseil | Partner | France |
| 10 | INSA Strasbourg | Partner | France |