CA22162 - FutureMed: A TRANSDISCIPLINARY NETWORK TO BRIDGE CLIMATE SCIENCE AND IMPACTS ON SOCIETY (FutureMed)

The Mediterranean is a climate change hotspot suffering severe consequences of global warming. Several types of risks are currently affecting the region, from frequent extreme weather events to coastal erosion from rising sea levels or increased pollution. In addition, climate change impacts also propagate as “cascades” across socio-economic sectors. In urban areas, such sequential or concurrent compounding hazards are more disastrous than single events. The impacts affect ecosystems, economic activities, and human health.

Despite the ubiquity of these connections, scientists and decision makers are typically working addressing isolated risks, advancing in parallel and missing added value from cooperative efforts. It is thus necessary to move beyond siloed approaches towards integrated efforts that promote effective science-based and agent-based decision-making. It is necessary to establish unprecedented networks of transdisciplinary partnerships, including scientific, human health, social approaches, to governance, and risk management. Such networks facilitate stakeholders and researchers to reach more accurate recommendations, strategies and policies addressing climate change impacts and risk management.

FutureMed will foster new climate change-related science and synergies serving as a transdisciplinary and integrative platform effectively connecting scientific knowledge on high-impact weather (HIW) events and climate change impacts with stakeholders from priority socio-economic sectors such as energy supply and demand, agriculture, health and migration. For the first time, an Action coordinates a platform where scientific communities, key stakeholders and citizens can interact for the ends of promoting climate change impacts awareness, establishing future research priorities, and building capacities based on knowledge exchange in a living lab.