The European Union-funded project, Adaptation AGORA, successfully concluded its participation as a key contributor to the 8th International International Adaptation Futures 2025 (AF2025), held from October 13 to 16, 2025, in Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand. As the flagship event of the United Nations World Adaptation Science Programme (WASP), AF2025 gathered over 1,500 policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and community leaders from around the globe to accelerate climate change adaptation action.
Adaptation AGORA’s presence at this premier international gathering underscored the project’s commitment to bridging knowledge gaps and fostering collaboration across the European adaptation landscape. The delegation focused on sharing innovative, user-friendly tools and co-creating actionable strategies that support regional and local communities in building resilience against climate impacts.
Mathilda Englund from SEI, project partner of Adaptation AGORA, presented a poster featuring the Adaptation AGORA Evaluation Framework. This framework provides a comprehensive approach to monitoring, evaluation, and learning of stakeholder and citizen engagement processes in climate adaptation. It evaluates four impact pathways: (1) relevant knowledge and action, (2) just representation and participation, (3) mutual learning, and (4) sustained partnerships.
SEI also contributed to several sessions. One of these was co-hosted with IMAGINE Adaptation at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), where participants experimented with three creative methods for imagining urban futures in a changing climate: Lego modelling, participatory collaging, and (dys)utopian writing. The session highlighted the potential of art-based and creative approaches in challenging participants to express and share their views in new ways and provided a starting point for continuous dialogue and adaptation work. By the end of the session, many expressed enthusiasm to incorporate similar methods into their own work.
Further, Åsa Gerger Swartling acted as chair of a session hosted by SEI and the International Network of Boundary Organizations on Adaptation (INBOA) on the topic “if when knowledge co-production does not go as expected”. Experts from around the world came together in a panel discussion to share challenges, setbacks, and unintended outcomes in stakeholder engagement processes. The session fostered an open and honest dialogue grounded in personal experience, providing an ample opportunity for participants to learn from past inefficiencies.
Francois Jost from ECSA, project partner of Adaptation AGORA, presented a poster highlighting key insights from the four Adaptation AGORA pilots in Aragón (Spain), Dresden (Germany), Malmö (Sweden), and Rome (Italy). In these pilots, citizens co-created soft adaptation solutions and co-evaluated engagement methods. Several cross-cutting lessons emerged: (1) building trust and ensuring continuity is crucial; (2) visual and hands-on methods are preferred over passive communication campaigns; (3) cultural and linguistic accessibility must be prioritized and adapted to local contexts; and (4) co-evaluation with local communities can uncover hidden barriers and local enablers.
Throughout the conference, Adaptation AGORA demonstrated its commitment to advancing inclusive, creative, and collaborative approaches to climate adaptation. By sharing both successes and challenges across diverse contexts and methods, Adaptation AGORA offered a valuable platform for collaboration, inspiration, and learning, advancing more effective and inclusive approaches to citizen engagement in climate adaptation.
