Five representatives of projects supported by the Operational Programme Research, Development and Education have been selected for this year’s round of the REGIOSTARS competition. And one of them is now among the 25 finalists who will present their projects to an expert jury and audience at the European Week of Regions and Cities in Brussels in October. The SustES project, supported by the OP RDE Excellence in Research call and led by the Global Change Research Institute of the CAS, p. r. i., has brought about a new research programme and an international team of experts working on climate change with a focus on the Central European region. And it is the successes in this area that rank it among the best projects in the Green Europe category.
The SustES project focuses on adaptation strategies for the sustainability of ecosystem services and food security under adverse natural conditions. It therefore focuses on research and development of innovative solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The project has established an international team of experts to conduct long-term experiments to demonstrate adaptation options and to identify potential risks of new measures. A key benefit of the project is to prevent the introduction of inappropriate adaptation measures, which helps to prevent the situation in the Czech Republic from worsening. Thanks to the project outputs in the form of climate change scenarios and digital watershed models, farmers and other stakeholders can better respond to extreme climate conditions and improve the sustainability of their activities. For the implementation of the project, the Global Change Research Institute of the CAS, p. r. i., has received more than CZK 335 million from European funds.
The Regiostars competition is a symbol of excellence for EU-funded projects. The winning projects in the five categories will not only receive a prestigious award during the REGIOSTARS ceremony on 9th October in Brussels, but also a local communication campaign in cooperation with DG Regio. Online voting for the Public Award will also be launched in September. Two other Czech projects were successful in other categories of the competition – O KROK aimed at employing people with disabilities and the SFÉRA Pardubice training center. An overview of all finalists is available on the European Commission website.
Source: Operational programme Jan Amos Komenský