SD-WESHEES

World Cultural Heritage and Climate change: EWA partner of the Horizon Europe SD-WISHEES project

The Horizon Europe project SD-WISHEES “Supporting and Developing Widening Strategies to tackle Hydroclimatic Extreme Events: Impacts and sustainable solutions for cultural heritage” is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) financed by the HORIZON-WIDER-2022-ERA-01-10 call “Programme level collaboration between national R&I programmes” with a budget around €3 million, the project started on 1 January 2023 for a duration of 48-months.

The SD-WISHEES partnership brings together 16 partners from 12 countries, including widening countries in Horizon Europe (Malta, Portugal, Romania), associated countries or countries for which association negotiations are being processed (Albania, Georgia, United Kingdom), international parties (The African Academy of Sciences, Kenya) and EU countries with long experience in Framework Programmes (Belgium, Italy and France).

About

The SD-WISHEES project will enable the collaboration between national research and innovation funding members to address together the protection of cultural heritage in Europe and beyond, in a context of climate change characterised by more frequent and severe hydroclimatic extreme events (e.g., droughts and floods). The project, in fact, will support the implementation of multi-annual joint activities focusing on the better understanding and the identification of best adaptation solutions that can be put in place in response to such catastrophic hydroclimatic events.

Objective

SD-WISHEES shall be launching a Thematic Annual Programming (TAP) instrument, for the  better alignment of national research and innovation priorities in the field of cultural heritage and hydroclimate extreme events. It will also conduct an impact analysis of project actions on the widening policy of the European Commission.

The following operational objectives have been laid out by the Consortium:

  • enhance cross-sector collaborations and strategic coordination between water, climate, and cultural heritage.
  • launch and monitor joint activities to measure progress towards widening;
  • address potential barriers for collaboration;
  • evaluate the impacts of those joint activities on widening policies as well as EU and international policy frameworks, notably the EU Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
  • implement joint activities enabling the market, regulatory and societal uptake of results.-

Project outcome

SD-WISHEES will apply an inclusive approach where experts and stakeholders will strongly contribute to maximising the synergy within the European Research & Innovation Area on water and climate change, to:

  • promote solutions for the protection of cultural heritage.
  • enhance consideration of world cultural heritage in the EU and international agenda.
  • support market uptake policies and actions by establishing tools specifically tailored to those challenges requiring a full attention.

A consultative draft roadmap on strategic R&I needs and priorities in the domains of hydroclimatic extreme events will be developed and it will act as a theory of change clearly indicating concrete R&I pathways that can facilitate collaboration within the EU and between the EU and EU’s strategic priority regions. This draft roadmap will be verified and updated through the process of stakeholder mapping.

Participants

  1. (Coordinator) Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)
  2. The African Academy of Sciences (AAS)
  3. Institut Royal Meteorologique de Belgique (IRM)
  4. World Experience for Georgia (WEG)
  5. Energy and Water Agency (EWA)
  6. Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneosui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC)
  7. Unitatea Executiva Pentru Finantarea Invatamantului Superior A Cercetarii Dezvoltarii Si Inovarii (UEFISCDI)
  8. Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA)
  9. Gses Management B.V. (GSES)
  10. Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
  11. Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR)
  12. Project Aid Ltd (PAL)
  13. University of Evora (EVORA)
  14. Fundación Prima (PRIMA)
  15. EcoAlbania (ECOA)
  16. Service Public Fédéral de Programmation Politique Scientifique (Belspo)

 

The Kick-off meeting, hosted by the lead partner of the project (CNR IRSA) took place on the last 6th – 8th March in Bari, Italy.

 

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