Growing Climate Resilience in Remote rural Areas through Community Empowerment Europe is warming faster than any other continent, with 2023 being the hottest year on record. This rapid Climate Change (CC) increases the frequency of extreme weather events such as floods, wildfires, and droughts, endangering people, infrastructure, ecosystems, and the economy. From 1980 to 2020, climate disasters cost the EU €12 billion annually, and future hazards could raise this figure to €170 billion per year. In response, the European Commission has enacted policies like the EU Green Deal, the Adaptation Strategy, and the Horizon Europe Mission on Climate Adaptation, all aiming to boost resilience, particularly in rural areas that are disproportionately vulnerable due to their dependence on natural resources and exposure to diverse climate risks. Rural areas, especially Remote Rural Areas (RRAs), face even greater obstacles like lower institutional capacity, underinvestment, and depopulation, limiting their ability to adopt climate adaptation measures. Covering 50% of the EU's rural territories, RRAs urgently need empowerment to tackle CC effectively. GRACE project focuses on addressing the needs of rural and small/medium communities localised in EU RRAs to adapt and build resilience against CC by strengthening their capacities and empowering them to become actors of change and take transformative action. A consortium of 26 organizations from 16 countries leads the project, with five demonstrator regions (DRs) in Portugal, Italy, Austria, Denmark, and Sweden co-developing innovative climate adaptation solutions centered on nature-based approaches. These solutions aim to deliver broad social and economic benefits. Then, five replicator regions (RRs) in Greece, Slovakia, Ireland, Latvia, and Ukraine will prepare for adopting the innovations developed by the DRs. Finally, GRACE will also engage observer regions (ORs) to follow and potentially replicate these solutions, fostering widespread CC adaptation across Europe’s rural areas.

Project leader: Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC) Partners:

INOVA+ - INNOVATION SERVICES, SA (INOVA+)
Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes (CIHEAM)
STICHTING VU (VUA) NL 5 European Public Law Organization (EPLO)
European Association for Innovation in Local Development (AEIDL)
Stowarzyszenie Centrum Rozwiązań Systemowych (CRS)
European Science Communication Institute gGmbH (ESCI)
Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain Research (BAB)
ACONIUM GMBH (Aconium)
Institute For Rural Development Research (IFLS)
Comunidade Intermunicipal do Baixo Alentejo (CIMBAL)
Gemeinsame Region Bucklige Welt – Wechselland (BW)
Comune di Cavallino Treporti (CT)
Regional Government of Thessaly (THES)
Vidzeme Planning Region (VD)
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Region Västerbotten (VAST)
Aalborg Kommune (AAK)
Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU)
Zilina self-governing region (ZSK)
Zalishchyky city council (ZCC)
Associação Estação Biológica de Mértola (EBM)
Instituto Politécnico de Beja (IPB)
Mayo County Council (CARO)
Project start: 1 October 2025
Duration: 3 years
Call: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CLIMA-01