In order to inform global action on biodiversity and climate protection, IPBES, IPCC and corresponding national processes were created to improve the science-policy interface (SPI) between knowledge holders and decision makers. Nevertheless, there are large differences in the capacities and experiences among countries in supporting and engaging in IPBES and IPCC processes. In addition, the knowledge systems on climate and biodiversity remain fragmented despite thematic and procedural overlaps in both domains. The aim of this project is to systematically evaluate and process existing experiences to provide other countries and stakeholders guidance and inspiration for SPI development. RESPIN will assess existing potentials and barriers to foster SPI processes around biodiversity and climate change to provide an improved access to information for decisions at EU, national and subnational levels. This project will: (1) empower knowledge holders to enhance the representation across regions, knowledge systems and stakeholder groups in SPI processes, considering the interlinkages between biodiversity and climate; (2) empower decision makers at different levels across the globe to uptake the knowledge and capacity building provided by IPBES and IPCC; (3) develop future perspectives for SPI engagement at EU level, enhancing EU capacities to incorporate IPBES and IPCC functions in their knowledge procedures and funding provisions; and (4) develop and disseminate online capacity building programs to up-scale best practices and translate relevant project outputs for key stakeholders and decision-makers across the globe. In sum, RESPIN will develop new SPI formats for integrated IPBES and IPCC processes, provide training and digital guidelines and develop action agendas with strategic partners to ensure integrated SPI processes on global, national and subnational levels.

INTERLACE brings together a uniquely positioned consortium to empower and equip European and CELAC cities to effectively restore and rehabilitate (peri)urban ecosystems towards more liveable, resilient and inclusive cities. The project applies an integrative, city-driven approach to address urban challenges through the restoration, rehabilitation and (re)connection of natural and social processes between places. A three-tiered mechanism for city and wider stakeholder exchange and learning – the City Network Accelerator – will strengthen cooperation and peer-to-peer interactions on the local, regional (EU and CELAC) and global scales. Innovative forms of inclusive participation will optimise the collection of available knowledge and experiences and the co-production of governance instruments and tools for restorative NBS. Six committed EU and CELAC partner cities are central to this process, providing and sharing experiences with other cities globally and building technical and procedural capacities. The international city network partners UNGL, Climate Alliance and UCLG will facilitate a wide dissemination and application of project outputs through effective pathways to impact. The web-based Innovation Hub will support these efforts by disseminating INTERLACE’s City NBS Tool for urban ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation and promoting project result exploitation. Comprised of integrated assessment systems, a catalogue of policy and governance instruments, city impulse papers, business cases, guidance documents, and more, the tool will support decision-making processes for urban ecological restoration in EU and CELAC cities and beyond. INTERLACE will advance knowledge and awareness of restorative NBS, foster more ecologically coherent and integrated city planning processes, and lay the foundation for sustained multi-directional cooperation and exchange between EU and CELAC cities for wider transformative impact.

Cities and regions in Europe (EU) and Community of Latin American & Caribbean States (CELAC) face shared and urgent global-local challenges to integrate practical actions with strategies to achieve greater inclusion, biodiversity, climate change adaptation and environmental quality. Many cities share problems of landscape fragmentation caused by rapid growth, urban sprawl and economic restructuring. Poorly planned urbanisation leaves a legacy of cities lacking the green areas needed for ecosystems to provide the services essential to human life. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have the potential to help reverse these trends, and our combined EU-CELAC palette of socio-cultural, ecological and governance contexts represents a huge opportunity to move forward - faster, together. CONEXUS will co-produce, structure and promote access to the shared, contextualised knowledge needed to support cities and communities to co-create NBS, and to restore urban ecosystems, to help drive the required step-change in urban policy and practice in EU and CELAC countries. It adopts a planetary health perspective: healthy landscapes and ecosystems are vital to support human life, and humanity must restore, create and care for these landscapes and ecosystems in a reciprocal, ongoing and iterative relationship. This transdisciplinary project uses nature-based thinking (NBT) to bring together community, private, public and research partners to meet this challenge, and experiments with novel co-production methods to deliver NBS innovations in ‘Life-Lab’ pilots. The project’s core concept is to co-create context-appropriate NBS for ecosystems restoration and sustainable urbanisation in CELAC and EU cities, using a place-based approach (place-making, place-keeping and place-prescribing), solving problems together with citizens. The CONEXUS cities are: in CELAC - São Paulo, Bogotá, Santiago and Buenos Aires; and in the EU - Lisbon, Barcelona and Turin.