The climate innovation window: bridging the gap between innovators and end-users in resilience to floods, droughts and extreme weather
Introduction to BRIGAID
Europe is particularly prone to natural hazards and evidence is now ever stronger that damages will increase in the future. Unfortunately, although there is a huge amount of climate adaptation innovations, many fail to reach the market.
BRIGAID (which stands for BRidging the Gap for Innovations in Disaster resilience) was a 4-year project (2016-2020) under EU Horizon2020 aimed to effectively bridge the gap between innovators and end-users in resilience to floods, droughts and extreme weather.
The BRIGAID approach aims to advance the technical, social and market readiness of innovations simultaneously. This smoothes the development path, because technical, social and market requirements can be incorporated in the design, business model and market approach early on. BRIGAID also contemplates a role of end-users that goes beyond the supply of basic information on their main requirements and evolves into a more direct contribution to the process of developing new products and solutions. We tell you more about BRIGAID in this video.
Any stakeholder in search of solutions to reduce their vulnerability to floods, droughts or extreme weather can engage with BRIGAID in three ways:
- Joining or starting a local community of innovation
- Participating in our demonstration events
- By subscribing to our online innovation sharing platform
Contact BRIGAID here: http://brigaid.eu/contact-us/
The Climate Innovation Window: a portal for climate change adaptation innovation
In order to facilitate the market uptake of climatic resilience innovations, BRIGAID has developed the CLIMATE INNOVATION WINDOW (CIW) where descriptive information of innovations as well as results produced through the application of BRIGAID methods is accessible to several types of stakeholders, e.g. innovators, public and private risk managers, policy and decision makers, industry and investors, etc.
Each innovation is linked to a specific type of hazard. The list of hazards considered is comprised of coastal floods, river floods, droughts, heatwaves, heavy precipitation, wind storms, wildfires and multi-hazard. In addition, each innovation is related to a series of topics based on the most related sectors or themes: agriculture, disasters and ICT, energy, forests, nature-based solutions, urban areas, water availability, water quality, and water safety. The consideration of both hazards and related topics allows to search for innovations based on supply or demand factors respectively. Additional criteria are included for advanced search of more specific innovations.
How does the CIW work?
Each innovation is described in a page. There we can find the name, a descriptive image or conceptual diagram of the innovation, and an explanation of the issue it aims to tackle. The current Technical Readiness Level (TRL) is specified, as well as the explanation of how the innovation works including the limitations or conditions under which the innovation does not work or is less effective, and which is the main added value in comparison to other existing solutions. Moreover, contact data of the innovator and expected purchase or rental pricing for the innovation are provided to interested end-users.
Those innovations which apply BRIGAID’s approach are described with additional information, such as values of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in terms of technical and social readiness; a factsheet including recommendations for final improvement and final qualification (status); information for investors about the business case, funding opportunities and market analysis and also a summary of the innovation’s pitch deck.
This information is key for those actors most interested in the promotion or adoption of new innovative solutions on climate resilience. Building on this, the project aims to develop a quality stamp that certifies that an innovation has applied the BRIGAID’s integrated approach to guide the last stages of its development prior to market uptake. This quality stamp will include a quality verification report providing the values measured for the key performance indicators defined in the BRIGAID’s Test and Implementation Framework. Moreover, this certification ensures that key information for investors is available.
The CIW added value
The CIW focuses on new products, processes and forms of organization into adaptation solutions to climatic events which are in the final stages of development. The use of the BRIGAID approach ensures the generation of the key information for end-users and investors and allow a reliable comparison among different potential solutions. For example, end-users interested in participating in the co-creation of solutions to their specific issues can particularly benefit from the platform, i.e. to identify the best candidates within a group of new innovations involved in operational testing and final adjustments. Furthermore, the platform facilitates the interaction among stakeholders by including some functionalities that support the gradual establishment of an online community e.g., visitors can ask questions, add user experiences, contact the innovators and monitor the progress of innovations.
The Climate Innovation Window aims to be a EU reference portal for innovations on climate change adaptation.
- Climate Innovation Window Platform
- Go to BRIGAID's website
- Read about the PLACARD (PLAtform for Climate Adaptation and Risk reDuction) project