(Horizon 2020) ARSINOE: Climate Resilient Regions Through Systemic Solutions and Innovations

ARSINOE is financed by the European Commission with a total budget of 15 million euros and is coordinated by the University of Thessaly. It brings together 41 partners from 15 countries and intends to be a game-changer for shaping pathways to resilience by delivering regional innovation packages that build an ecosystem to develop and implement innovative climate change adaptation measures and solutions across Europe.

Systems Innovation Approach (SIA) addresses the growing complexity, interdependencies and interconnectedness of modern societies and economies, focusing on the functions of the cross-sectoral system as a whole and on the variety of actors. The Climate Innovation Window (CIW) is the EU reference innovations marketplace for climate adaptation technologies.

ARSINOE shapes the pathways to resilience by bringing together SIA and CIW, to build an ecosystem for climate change adaptation solutions. Within the ARSINOE ecosystem, pathways to solutions are co-created and co-designed by stakeholders, who can then select either existing CIW technologies, or technologies by new providers (or a combination) to form an innovation package. This package may be designed for implementation to a specific region, but its building blocks are transferable and re-usable; they can be re-adapted and updated. In this way, the user (region) gets an innovation package consisting of validated technologies (expanding the market for CIW); new technologies implemented in the specific local innovation package get the opportunity to be validated and become CIW members, while the society (citizens, stakeholders ) benefits as a whole. ARSINOE applies a three-tier, approach:

(a) using SIA it integrates multi-faceted technological, digital, business, governance and environmental aspects with social innovation for the development of adaptation pathways to climate change for specific regions;

(b) it links with CIW to form innovation packages by matching innovators with end-users/regions;

(c) it fosters the ecosystem sustainability and growth with cross-fertilization and replication across regions and scales, at European level and beyond, using specific business models, exploitation and outreach actions.

The ARSINOE approach is show-cased in nine widely varied demonstrators, as a proof-of-concept with regards to its applicability, replicability, potential and efficacy.

The Research laboratory on Socio-Economic and Environmental Sustainability (ReSEES) at Athens University of Economics and Business where the Principal Investigator of the project is Prof. Koundouri. ReSEES Laboratory at Athens University of Economics is the Leader of WP7: Financial issues and financing instruments/Business models (AUEB), the leader of “Case study 2: Mediterranean ports” and is heavily involved at the Athens & Black Sea case studies. Given its expertise in economy, finance and funding, AUEB-RC will contribute in creating a portfolio of financing solutions that collectively can contribute to the improvement of various regions' resilience. AUEB-RC will play a major role in identifying financial innovation pathways, co-developing stakeholder specific financial pathways and business plans, designing financial instruments and developing a hybrid financial reporting model that integrates profits, social, environmental and governance criteria. Along with Prof. Koundouri, members of AUEB team are: Dr. Conrad Landis, Ms. Alice Guittard and Ms. Maria Lentoudi; also, Prof. Dionysis Assimacopoulos, Prof. Vasiliki Tsoukala and Ms. Vasiliki Chalastani from the National Technical University of Athens are also included in the AUEB team.

• Grant agreement ID: 101037424
• Start date 1 October 2021 - End date 30 September 2025
• Coordinated by University of Thessaly, Greece
• Partners 40
• Overall budget € 15 643 021,25

Project Leader: University of Thessaly (Prof. Chrysi Laspidou laspidou@uth.gr  )

Responsible Scientist on behalf of Athens University of Economics & Business: Prof. Phoebe Koundouri (pkoundouri@aueb.gr )

Check out the ARSINOE YouTube video to find out more about our concept!