Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BRIGAID (BRIdges the GAp for Innovations in Disaster resilience)

Teaser

Studies from the IPCC indicate that Europe is particularly prone to risks of river and coastal floods, droughts resulting in water restrictions and damages from extreme weather events such as heat events and wildfires. Evidence is now ever stronger that damages from these...

Summary

Studies from the IPCC indicate that Europe is particularly prone to risks of river and coastal floods, droughts resulting in water restrictions and damages from extreme weather events such as heat events and wildfires. Evidence is now ever stronger that damages from these natural hazards will increase.1 Evaluations also show a huge potential to reduce these risks through adaptation strategies. For instance, ClimateCost results2 predict that annual expected flood damages can be reduced from 20 to 8 billion euro in the 2020s and from 46 to 19 billion euro in the 2050s. Moreover, damage reduction is expected to outweigh adaption costs by far (expected costs are 1.7 and 3.4 billion euro in 2020s and 2050s, respectively). Unfortunately, although that is a huge amount of climate adaptation innovations, many fail to reach the market.

BRIGAID’s ambition is to provide structural, ongoing support for innovations in climate adaptation by developing an innovative mix of methods and tools, that should become a standard for climate adaptation innovations. To achieve this, BRIGAID follows a 2-layered approach. First, BRIGAID’s unique mix of methods and tools consists of three elements; 1) a framework that evaluates the effectiveness of innovations and the organizational and governance requirements, 2) a business development and financing model for climate adaptation innovations and 3) an online interactive platform that presents innovations and connects innovators, end users, qualified investors, and grants and fiscal incentives advisors throughout Europe. Second, these methods and tools are validated in the project by reviewing 75-100 promising innovations on floods, droughts and extreme weather, improving the 35-50 most promising ones, and bringing the top 20-30 innovations with the highest socio-technical and investment readiness to the market. By embedding the mix of tools in the interactive platform, attracting a ring of common investors in climate adaptation, connecting with the EU and National Adaptation Strategies, BRIGAID strives to become the quality label for climate adaptation and structural reduction of climate-related disaster impacts in Europe and beyond. BRIGAID strongly believes that this unique approach will be essential for Bridging the Gap for Innovations in Disaster resilience structurally.

Work performed

To achieve BRIGAID\'s overal objectives, the following main results have already been (partly) achieved:
• Setting-up and providing structural support in testing and validating innovations, by performing tests and demonstrations for innovations that reduce impacts from floods, droughts and extreme weather and by establishing a network of test facilities and implementation sites across Europe that can be utilized for completing innovations during and beyond BRIGAID’s lifetime;
• Creating a test and implementation Framework (TIF), which delivers a standardised methodology for an independent, scientific judgment of the socio-technological effectiveness of innovations that can be applied throughout Europe, in various economic sectors, taking into account the local uncertainties in climate change scenarios, organizational needs and policy implementation requirements. The ambition is that TIF becomes the quality label in the EU to assess effectiveness of risk reducing measures;
• Delivery of support in business development and dissemination of innovations, though development of a Market Analysis Framework (MAF+) to identify market opportunities and select business models, and development of a Public-Private Investment and Financing (PPIF) model for securing ongoing investments in (clusters of) innovations including utilization of other EU funding mechanisms (e.g., European Structural and Investment Funds), and performance of online and offline marketing activities to expose innovations to end users;
• Creating an online Innovation Sharing Platform (ISP) as the EU portal for innovations, that can be accessed by all stakeholders (innovators, risk managers, policy and decision makers, industry, investors) to view innovations, test results and performance according to the TIF, and (to add new) user experiences. The platform will be designed as an interactive medium that functions as an online community. Beyond BRIGAID it can be linked with other important climate platforms such as the European Climate Adaptation Platform (Climate ADAPT) and EIP-Water.

Final results

Rapid Large scale market uptake
In line with the call text, BRIGAID aims for: Rapid large-scale deployment and market uptake of innovative technological and non-technological climate change adaptation solutions with high replicability.

Contribution to the development of technological and performance standards for adaptation options
To assess the performance of innovations, BRIGAID develops a Test and Implementation Framework (TIF) to provide an independent scientific evaluation of the effectiveness of innovations and their ability to reduce disaster impacts from floods droughts and extreme weather in different economic sectors and local regions.

Improving innovation capacity and the integration of new knowledge
BRIGAID is all about fostering the innovation capacities of sme’s and start-ups that have solutions for climate adaptation, in particular related to floods, droughts and extreme weather. BRIGAID aims to strengthen the connections among innovators, researchers and end users. By enabling innovations to be assessed on their socio-technological effectiveness and by creating a bridge to the market, the innovators’ capacities will be used to the max. In order to contribute to the long term innovation capacity in Europe, BRIGAID aims to set up a business and funding model. At the end of the project the European network of test facilities, and the methodology to test and implement innovations, will continue to connect innovators with end users. The continuous integration of new knowledge is secured by the Test and Implementation Framework and continuously published in an interactive online platform where innovators, researchers and end users can seek for information and exchange knowledge and ideas.

Strengthening the competitiveness and growth of companies
Through the use of a clearly defined set of parameters for stock-tacking (as described in Section 3) and thorough testing, BRIGAID ensures that the innovations that the project takes on meet the needs of European and global markets. Furthermore, elements like the MAF+, the PPIF and the guidance on business plan development will enhance the skills of the organisations behind the innovations.

Environmental and socially important impact
A high level environmental impact of innovations is part of the assessment of the socio-technological effectiveness of the innovation (TIF). By assessing the impact of the measures on the environment, negative impacts will be minimized. The social impact of innovations is an integral part of the TIF. Based on an assessment of the acceptance of innovations by institutions and societies, a qualification of the ‘social readiness’ of innovations is established. TIF will also assess impact of innovations on the health sector. In case an innovation has a positive impact on human health as well as high acceptance levels, chances increase that governments are willing to adopt the innovation, resulting in a positive environmental and social impact.

Website & more info

More info: http://brigaid.eu/.