While many larger cities and regions have identified the potential impacts of climate change in their territories and have in many cases already developed adaptation scenarios, their smaller and medium-sized counterparts often lack the necessary resources for conducting climate risks analysis and planning and have so far been limited in addressing climate risks effectively. As a very large number of localities are indeed small or medium in size, with large and rural territories, their lack of preparedness translates in a crucial weakness of the overall continent preparedness and response to the changing climate. The shortage of skilled labour and in particular of experts with climate assessment and environmental skills prevent a majority of municipalities from implementing local investments.

This capacity limitation, coupled with the typical large territorial responsibility of the involved authorities and the very diverse risks they are exposed, makes in many cases difficult to leverage efficiencies of scale as it is the case in more densely populated areas. This has unluckily translated in many cases into more deadly impacts of extreme weathers events in relation to the population exposed.

Proposals should identify approaches and innovative solutions leading to an increase of the resilience and adaptation capacity to climate change which are particularly suitable for implementation by small and medium local authorities and the rural context. These solutions could include technological, social and business-related aspects or a combination of those. Nature-based solutions should be explored as priority and be at the very heart of the development whenever possible. Moreover, particular attention should be given to the potential of digital solutions in a rural or small/medium size population entity context, to also support their twin digital transition. Opportunities of circular economy to increase resilience and reduce dependencies should be seized.

The proposed solutions should specifically address the most urgent climate risks identified at the local scale, with tailor-made responses and measures taking into account local specificities, such as, socio-economic, identity characteristics and governance. Alongside the solutions, the proposal should support small and medium local authorities to close skills gaps and strengthen in-house capabilities for climate adaptation. To best focus the approaches and solutions to the local challenges, the proposal is expected to clearly identify the type of actors it addresses, being those either rural areas or small sized urban areas.

The participation of small and medium-sized local authorities in the consortium is strongly encouraged and would be evaluated positively as this can support the development in-house capacities and skills. However, as the capacity and availability for engagement of small / medium size local communities and in the rural area might be too limited to directly participate in the consortium, the proposal should at a minimum include specific considerations on how to facilitate their engagement and how their needs are reflected. This could take, for example, the form of a board or of a consultation body where they are directly engaged singularly or in association and/or grouping between themselves, should this be the preferred approach and form for the local authorities to delegate specific local competences, or could be achieved potentially leveraging the support already put in place by the Mission Implementation Platform.

Under the Mission approach, collaborations to develop and test effective solutions between regions/local authorities/communities facing similar challenges are highly encouraged and considered as a means to secure a larger impact. To this purpose, while the required demonstration is expected to take place in at least three locations, the proposals should already identify other regions/local authorities/ communities, where reapplication of the proposed approach will be suitable as sharing common climate change challenges. Inclusion already in the proposal of at least three “replicating” regions/local authorities/communities, interested in reapplying the lessons learnt (totally, partially or with the required adjustments) in their territories is required; this could take the form of inclusion in the consortium of one or more partners providing support for the technical exchanges and the knowledge uptake in the “replicating” regions. Replicating regions/local authorities/communities are not expected to also conduct a demonstration or carry out on the ground activities in the course of the project but they should at least prepare already the theoretical framework for implementing the replication through the lessons exchanged with the demonstration regions.