DIRECTED Communication & Dissemination Strategy - Horizon Europe

DIRECTED Communication & Dissemination Strategy Horizon Europe Tuesday, 19 August 2025 Tracy Irvine17, Max Steinhausen1, Tobias Conradt2, Martin Drews3, Paolo Mazzoli4, Pia-Johanna Schweizer5, Lydia Cumiskey6, Amalie Laursen7, Sandro Nanni13, Christopher Genillard9, Stefan Hochrainer-Stigler10, Julian Struck11, Levente Huszti12, Valeria Pancioli8, Heiko Apel14, Katharina Demmich15, Chahan Kropf16, Sukaina Bharwani18 1. TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET BRAUNSCHWEIG 10. INTERNATIONALES INSTITUT FUER ANGEWANDTE SYSTEMANALYSE 2. POTSDAM-INSTITUT FUR KLIMAFOLGENFORSCHUNG EV 11. ERFTVERBAND 3. DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET 12. ZALA KULONLEGES MENTOK ES ONKENTES TUZOLTO EGYSULET 4. GECOSISTEMA SRL 13. AGENZIA REGIONALE PER LA PREVENZIONE, L'AMBIENTE E L'ENERGIA DELL'EMILIA-ROMAGNA 5. RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABILITY 14. HELMHOLTZ ZENTRUM POTSDAM DEUTSCHESGEOFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM GFZ 6. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK - NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORK 15. 52 NORTH SPATIAL INFORMATION RESEARCH GMBH 7. REGION HOVEDSTADEN 16. EIDGENOESSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZÜRICH 8. AGENZIA REGIONALE PER LA SICUREZZA TERRITORIALE E LA PROTEZIONE CIVILE 17. OASIS HUB LIMITED 9. GENILLARD & CO GMBH 18. SEI OXFORD OFFICE LIMITED 2 Communication & Dissemination Strategy Report overview Project number 101073978 Project acronym DIRECTED Project name Disaster Resilience for Extreme Climate Events providing Interoperable Data, Models, Communication and Governance Call HORIZON-CL3-2021-DRS-01 Topic HORIZON-CL3-2021-DRS-01-02 Type of action Innovation Action Responsible service Horizon Europe Project starting date 04/10/2022 Project duration 4 Years Period covered ALL Reporting period number 1 Periodic report date and version 13/08/2024 V6 3 Communication & Dissemination Strategy Document history Version Date Comment V1 31/01/23 Initial Draft V2 15/02/23 Comments/edits received from beneficiaries V3 03/03/23 V3 completed to be sent to all for final sign-off V4 10/03/23 Reformatting of V3 and additional figures V5 13/03/23 Updates to tables 6, 20, 21 V6 13/08/24 Updates as advised by the Project Review V7 19/08/25 Reworked version for upload to Zenodo 4 Communication & Dissemination Strategy Executive summary The DIRECTED Project is, by its nature, a highly collaborative project that from the outset will need the delivery of well thought out communications and dissemination actions that are tailored to the target audiences it wishes to address. The Project will use a range of techniques including detailed stakeholder engagement work using the Risk-Tandem Framework tool, production of training materials and training of trainers, tool demonstrations, as well as more uniform modern communication techniques such as mass media, website, social media, video, podcasts, webinars, blogs, published papers and conference dissemination. It will also target policy-maker communication and dissemination through developing policy briefs and specific policy-maker meetings and engagement. Our goal is to deliver a comprehensive communications and dissemination programme that engages, informs and influences our target audiences and enables us to move towards our outcomes and in the longer term see the impacts we wish to make. Specifically, our target audiences include: 1) First and second responders 2) Regional and municipal civil authorities - including disaster management, planning authorities and cross regional municipalities 3) Physical and social scientific organisations - those who work in climate change, natural disaster sciences and damage and loss, governance and innovation 4) The general public - will be represented by municipalities This strategy provides a broad outline of our goals and the communication and dissemination techniques we will use, as well as the Year 1 Communications and Dissemination plan that can be found at the end of the report. 5 Communication & Dissemination Strategy Contents Report overview .................................................................................................................... 2 Document history .................................................................................................................. 3 Executive summary ............................................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 7 1.1 Background of the Directed Project ............................................................................. 7 1.2 Project partners ......................................................................................................... 10 1.3 Expected Outcomes & Impacts .................................................................................. 11 1.3.1 Outcomes and indicators of scale and significance ............................................. 11 1.3.2 Intended Impacts .............................................................................................. 15 1.4 Target Groups for Communication and Dissemination ............................................... 16 2 Dissemination and communications tools and processes in the DIRECTED Project ........ 17 2.1 Responsibilities for communication and dissemination .............................................. 19 2.2 Communications ........................................................................................................ 19 2.2.1 Project Launch .................................................................................................... 19 2.2.2 Project Branding & Website ................................................................................ 19 2.2.3 Real World Labs/ Case Study Creation ............................................................... 22 2.2.4 Visualisations ...................................................................................................... 23 2.2.5 Social Media ....................................................................................................... 24 2.2.6 Video, Podcasts & Webinars ............................................................................... 27 2.2.7 Quarterly Blog ..................................................................................................... 29 2.2.8 Mass Media and Media Pack Creation ................................................................ 29 2.3 Dissemination ............................................................................................................ 30 2.3.1 Tool Demonstrations ........................................................................................... 30 2.3.2 Stakeholder engagement in co-design and co-production ................................... 31 2.3.3 Policy Briefs & Policy-maker Meetings ................................................................ 32 2.3.4 DIRECTED e-Learning Portal .............................................................................. 33 2.3.5 Published Papers ................................................................................................ 35 2.3.6 Conference Attendance....................................................................................... 35 2.3.6 Use of EU Communications & Dissemination Platforms ...................................... 38 2.3.7 Data Stewardship Principles ....................................................................................... 38 3. Monitoring & Evaluation of Communication & Dissemination Impacts ............................. 39 3.1 Monitoring .................................................................................................................. 39 3.2 Evaluation .................................................................................................................. 40 4. Year 1 – Dissemination & Communication Plan .............................................................. 41 4.1 Year 1 – Dissemination Plan...................................................................................... 42 4.2 Year 1 – Communication Plan ................................................................................... 43 Table of Figures .................................................................................................................. 44 6 Communication & Dissemination Strategy Index of Tables ................................................................................................................... 45 Partners .............................................................................................................................. 46 7 Communication & Dissemination Strategy 1. Introduction This Communication and Dissemination Strategy sets the road map for the DIRECTED Project to succeed in reaching its stated goals and impacts and the communication and dissemination actions that will be required to support this. It will ensure that the correct acknowledgement of the European Union support of the Project can also be appreciated and how we will ensure that the wider understanding and use of the results achieved through the Project will be pursued. 1.1 Background of the Directed Project The recent droughts and unprecedented floods in central Europe have illustrated our vulnerability to extreme weather events. Besides climate change as a driver of more frequent and intensifying weather extremes, demographic change and socio-economic development exacerbate severe impacts. International frameworks for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (e.g. SENDAI framework, EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change) acknowledge the critical need for integrating risk governance, communication and operational mechanisms for coping with extreme climate events throughout the entire Disaster Risk Management cycle. DIRECTED aspires to foster disaster-resilient European societies by expanding our capabilities to communicate, utilise and exchange state-of-the-art data, information and knowledge between different actors; boosting the integration, accessibility and interoperability of models; facilitating knowledge sharing; improving dialogue and cooperation encompassing all levels of actors based on enhanced community engagement and developing new governance and risk management strategies using a bottom-up, valuedriven co-development approach. Key to supporting interoperability will be the establishment of the Data Fabric (Figure 2), an innovative, governed, cloud platform that enables secure, flexible, discovery and sharing of all structured and unstructured data. Thus, dissemination and communications are a core part of this project. Central to DIRECTED are four Real World Labs that co-develop new governance, interoperability and knowledge production frameworks and demonstrate their benefits for enhanced disaster risk governance supported by innovative technical frameworks to access, transform and integrate data and models into customised workflows for creating actionable solutions. The Real World Labs ensure the project continuously and actively involves key stakeholders in the co-development process and address topical problems of multi-hazard risk management and Climate Change Adaptation to maximise impacts. DIRECTED builds on a highly interactive transdisciplinary knowledge co-production process and an innovative digital architecture for process integration and analytics aimed at facilitating enhanced knowledge-based dialogues, communication, cooperation and “interoperability” on the three levels that are essential for integrating Disaster Risk 8 Communication & Dissemination Strategy Management (DRM) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) related to extreme climate events in a multi-scale and multi-risk perspective: 1) Governance interoperability, 2) Information interoperability, and 3) Data and model interoperability (Figure 1). Figure 1: DIRECTED project concept. For this aim, experts and expertise from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) provided from within the consortium will play a crucial role. Governance interoperability seeks to integrate relevant actors, responders and stakeholders across institutions, sectors and scales through suitable governance and enabling mechanisms, suggestions for adjusted legal frameworks and tailored responsibilities and financing arrangements. Information interoperability pursues a verifiably and timely information exchange between all phases of the DRM cycle through improved dialogues and communication between DRM and CCA communities across multiple levels, such as resolving issues in understanding early warnings and turning relevant information into effective and coordinated actions. In this regard, model-based information such as flood forecasts, disaster risk assessments, climate projections and cost-benefit analyses play a critical role in decision-support in different phases of the integrated DRM-CCA cycle. Data and model interoperability addresses the need for combining data and models (e.g. multi-risk), including proprietary resources, from/at different domains, providers, resolutions, vintages, sources, formats (and more) into highly customized DRM and CCA workflows given the frequent absence of standards, and the lack of a common understanding and infrastructure. This includes but is 9 Communication & Dissemination Strategy not limited to differences with respect to purpose, spatio-temporal scales, resolutions and conflicting model assumptions. DIRECTED aims to pave the way for the generic use of existing state-of-the-art data and models combined by means of open standards for information and data exchange; and to demonstrate the feasibility thereof when available tools are made interoperable. Four RWLs form the core of our DIRECTED approach and frame the settings for co-creating solutions and demonstrating integrated DRM and CCA, including our new and enhanced tools and processes. Our four laboratories cover representative European geographies (Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean) and are characterized by a diversity of challenges from extreme climate events (including compound events), multi-risks, climate adaptation options, scales (from local to regional), and institutional and legal settings. This approach ensures that co-designing solutions to real-world challenges is central, and that stakeholder involvement occurs throughout the project. 16 Communication & Dissemination Strategy • Supporting first, second and third responders with forecast and risk assessment information they need to utilise emergency services more effectively – understanding the likelihood of the most impacted zones after a disaster and conditions associated with that emergency e.g. flood levels, types of properties and multiple other data sources as brought together by interoperable tools and the Data Fabric/ mesh. • Supporting first, second and third responders with training materials enabling more efficient responses to climate emergencies. 1.4 Target Groups for Communication and Dissemination DRR and CCA communities involve multiple stakeholder groups, all requiring information for different purposes and at different levels of communication. Likewise, the work undertaken involves different time dimensional needs e.g. disaster information during a disaster and the need for risk reduction and climate adaptation planning. We seek to reduce complexity and increase efficiency to access the relevant information and data needs through understanding and creating appropriate workflows where we will seek to link appropriate climate science outputs and information to make operational decisions at the appropriate time, e.g. risk reduction and adaptation planning or for training and preparation or operational response. We have carefully selected representational organisations of our target groups to be directly involved as co-production, co-design partners in the Project. Our target groups include: 1) First and second responders 2) Regional and municipal civil authorities - including disaster management, planning authorities and cross regional municipalities 3) Physical and social scientific organisations - those who work in climate change, natural disaster sciences and damage and loss, governance and innovation 4) The general public - will be mainly be represented by municipalities The Real World Labs will invite other local stakeholders including utility companies, NGO’s, health and social care organisations to become part of the consultations. We perceive that the four RWL’s: in the Danube catchment basin, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia will be representative of stakeholders from across Europe to ensure the potential for scalability of governance structures, the use of interoperable tools and management via Data Fabric/ mech digital architectures. Beyond the work of the Project directly, we intend to engage stakeholders who will benefit from knowledge of the techniques used in the Project, as well as the tools used within the system and the Data Fabric itself from the four communities named above, and extended beyond the regions involved in the Project 17 Communication & Dissemination Strategy 2 Dissemination and communications tools and processes in the DIRECTED Project Oasis Hub will lead on the formal communications of the Project in conjunction with all partners in the DIRECTED Project. Formal and social media communications will be centralised through Oasis Hub with dissemination of news, articles, blogs, social media messaging through Oasis Hub networks and the partner organisations in the Project. Oasis Hub has experienced science communication and innovation professionals thus DIRECTED will communicate professional level materials aimed at non-specialist audiences through a diary of planned releases related to the different stages of the project. Some releases will be translated into a range of European languages linked to relevant target audiences. In addition, as far as possible we will try to use every day, inclusive language to convey messaging, avoiding as much jargon as possible, to attempt to provide access to all through the language we use. This will also help with read softwares that assist visually impaired readers to access our work. We have designed a communications and dissemination process that is more broadly divided into the different stages the Project will go through as follows in Table 2 below. 18 Communication & Dissemination Strategy Table 2: DIRECTED communications timeline. Phase 1 Oct 2022 to March 2023 Phase 2 March 2023 to March 2024 Phase 3 March 2024 to March 2025 Phase 4 March 2025 to March 2026 Phase 5 March 2026 to October 2026 Communication s strategy developed Project launch communication s Start of Project Blog – quarterly blog posts to continue to end of the Project Bi-weekly social media posts began and continued to the end of the Project e.g. stories, plans etc. Website development Brand development Communication s on: ● Project events ● Workshops ● Processes and techniques and the physical and social scientists/ themselves ● Building a picture of the people involved in Directed stakeholder involvement and outcomes during this phase Continued social media dissemination Beginning of conference dissemination Communication s on: ● Early scientific & governance and process ● Findings from market research and stakeholder needs assessment ● Real World Lab reports Continued conference dissemination Continued social media dissemination Case study creation Research publications and related news and articles Training material and programme on use of tools and systems Webinar series with physical and social scientists Continued social media dissemination Media pack creation & dissemination (press releases for international media) Policy-maker meetings, policy briefs. Conference dissemination of results Continued social media dissemination 19 Communication & Dissemination Strategy 2.1 Responsibilities for communication and dissemination When communicating with our target audience, the main spokespeople of DIRECTED Project are the following: • The Project Manager and the WP 6 Lead will be responsible for communicating about the project and its results and progress on behalf of the project consortium; • The WP 6 Lead and team members responsible for the overall communication strategy on behalf of the project consortium. WP 6 Lead and team members are also in charge of encouraging Partners to take part in communication activities within the project; • The WP Leads are responsible for the communication of the results of the project within the frame of their specific WP; • The Real World Lab Leads (WP 1) are responsible for communication about the Real World Labs within the respective geographic scope; • All Partners are responsible for communication about their involvement in the project. Breaches of these responsibilities shall be reported to either the Project Coordinator or WP 6 Lead and mitigation of any issues will be actioned. If an organisation does not take part in communications and dissemination activities as beneficiaries are obliged to do under the grant agreement, without prior permission not to be involved in communications and dissemination, the EU Project Officer will be informed. 2.2 Communications 2.2.1 Project Launch A Project Launch has been conducted in conjunction with our first meeting in November, 2022. A social media campaign was conducted by all of the partner making the announcement on multiple social media channels and websites. 2.2.2 Project Branding & Website Project branding has been developed to enable easy recognition of the DIRECTED Project and to ensure that the Project is recognised as one rather than a series of smaller projects. The DIRECTED Logo and branding will be used on all DIRECTED communications. 20 Communication & Dissemination Strategy Figure 3: DIRECTED logo design. We have designed branded communication templates for reports, policy briefs, conference posters and pull-outs using DIRECTED branding which all of the participants in the project will use. Importantly we have designed a DIRECTED Project website. The website includes a wide range of communication channels including a regular blog, news, publications, reports, videos, podcasts and webinars. To ease and assist communications, partners will be able to copy links or download materials and post to organisational media outlets. Figure 4: DIRECTED project website. Learn more under https://directedproject.eu/. 21 Communication & Dissemination Strategy The Project URL can be found here: https://directedproject.eu/ The site will disseminate full information and progress of the Project, as well as more contextual information on climate Disaster Risk Management and climate adaptation. Figure 5: Central communications and dissemination hub on the DIRECTED website. Media access under https://directedproject.eu/media/. In addition, we are making it a central communications and dissemination hub in that all of our social media will be connected to the website, project reports, videos and podcasts, webinars, publications and presentations can be stored and viewed on the site (Figure 5). Table 3: Target for communication action. Target Groups Reached Goal Indicator Aids Outcome/ Impact All 30,000 Users over 4 years Users from google analytics Outcomes 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Broad communication of reports, videos, podcasts, webinars, papers, news, presentations 22 Communication & Dissemination Strategy 2.2.3 Real World Labs/ Case Study Creation Case studies will be developed as a part of the Real World Labs. The idea of the case studies is to publish information and experiences of grassroots professionals when working on climate Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation and include process successes and failures and communications issues that have occurred during and after disasters and in the facilitation of cross border climate adaptation planning and action. We hope this will enable other professionals in DRR/CCA to recognise the friction in their processes and potential ways to overcome and improve these. The case study will be particularly focused on those Real World Labs that have recently experienced extreme events - Emilia-Romagna, the May 2023 extreme flood events and Rhine-Erft, July 2021 extreme floods and will involve the on-the-ground stakeholders in developing local level accounts of what occurred, how it was managed and how improvements in future could occur. This deliverable is particularly linked to D1.3. Case Study Development. Table 4: Target for case study creation. Work Packages engaged: • WP 1 Emilia-Romagna and Rhine-Erft participants • WP 2 Models – SaferPlaces and Rim2D • WP 3 • WP 4 • WP 5 Linked to developing training packages • WP 6 Lead Target Groups Reached Goal Indicator Aids Outcome/ Impact 1) First and second responders 2) Regional and municipal civil authorities - including disaster management, planning authorities and cross regional municipalities 3) Physical and social scientific organisations Case studies downloaded or viewed through social media or through specialist publications by 100x CCA & DRM professionals Downloads and views from website Outcomes 1,2,3,4,6 23 Communication & Dissemination Strategy 2.2.4 Visualisations Visualisations for the general public and volunteers will be designed for effective communications of stages of risk decision for public information to enable a simple understanding on the processes of risk e.g. prepare, evacuate, where to find official communication, level of flood that sparks decision stages – these will be designed in local languages and for the local context for the RWL’s. Visualisations will be developed for volunteers to aid their understanding of go and no-go areas during an event. The visualisations will be generated through using the Data Fabric in WP 5 and the data and tools found in WP 2. Other visualisations that may be generated will be based around understanding the RiskTandem Framework processes to enable training and capacity development with WP 1 and developed through WP 3 and WP 4. Table 5: Target for visualisation for the general public. Target Groups Reached Goal Indicator Aids Outcome/ Impact General Public/ volunteer Disaster Management professionals Reach 2000 households in the RWL case study area To be provided to participants in capacity development training Downloads / or public disseminati on numbers Numbers at capacity developme nt training events Outcome 3b General public/ volunteers informed of disaster decisionmaking process and where to get information. Outcome 3b Visualisation that explain the process of the Risk Tandem Framework provided to participants in capacity development and training. Work Packages engaged: • WP 1 • WP 2 • WP 3 • WP 4 • WP 5 24 Communication & Dissemination Strategy 2.2.5 Social Media New DIRECTED Project social media have been created and developed including; • LinkedIn discussion group – we will use this as a key dissemination forum inviting DRR & CCA specialists to the forum to engage and collaborate with us. We will also use LinkedIn to poll members on key questions that will benefit our work – thus gaining input from a wider range of stakeholders. We see linked in as the medium to engage a large network of professionals in the fields of DRR and CCA Find us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14155514/ • YouTube for video Find us on YouTube - @directedproject • Twitter & Mastodon – we will build communities in both Twitter and Mastodon. We are using both as it is unclear whether Twitter will keep its top status and whether it will be able to continue long-term. Mastodon also targets specialist user groups. These channels will primarily be aimed at communicating to the general public Find us on Twitter and Mastodon Twitter - @DirectedProj Mastodon - https://vmst.io/ @DirectedProject • Instagram – has been chosen as it is used by the younger people. We will be posting small videocasts and visualisations informing people about our project. Again, we will use this to inform new audiences in particular younger people. Find us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/directedproject/ These channels will be developed by following other stakeholder organisations and relevant influencers as well as linking to our partners social medias. Relevant hashtags will be identified and used to attract other relevant followers. We will also communicate information throughout our project members existing social media channels some beneficiaries having large existing members/ followers and link to these channels with social media posts and encourage each institution to share posts and create their own posts regarding the Project. Table 6. shows existing members social media reach. 25 Communication & Dissemination Strategy Table 6: Existing channels to communicate DIRECTED information and news. Oasis Hub will use its social media communities on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube (where video is available) to communicate messaging. Existing audiences on Oasis Hub Twitter (mixed community of specialists in: insurance/ reinsurance, scientists, economists, climate change specialists (including policy), risk management & reduction, Disaster Risk Reduction, remote sensing, flood risk, climate adaptation, sustainable development, natural hazards, climate risk, Climate Change Adaptation, big data in both public and private sectors) and LinkedIn (mainly insurance, reinsurance and finance specialists), partner, other beneficiary communications. New audiences will be targeted through linking to particular influencers in relevant sectors – new target sectors will include risk managers in municipalities, local authorities and services, policy-makers, DRR professionals and local planning departments and specific targets as 32 Communication & Dissemination Strategy Figure 6: Directed Work Packages linked to the Tandem Framework. Work Packages engaged: • WP 3 and WP 1 Table 12: Target for stakeholder engagement. 2.3.3 Policy Briefs & Policy-maker Meetings Policy briefs will be created using the results of the DIRECTED Project to make recommendations towards EU and local disaster risk, economic and climate adaptation policies. A briefing of the results of the Project will be conducted in phase 5 of the Project to relevant EU Departments and Executive Agencies (DG’s) – we will also seek an understanding whether relevant DG’s would seek to be kept up-to-date in the progress of the project e.g. how & when. Likewise, policy briefs can also be distributed amongst local level Target Groups Reached Goal Indicator Aids Outcome/ Impact Specialist audiences Detailed stakeholder engagement for co-design and co-production in conjunction with four Real World Labs Number of specialists involved in workshops Outcomes: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 33 Communication & Dissemination Strategy policy stakeholders to guide policy as appropriate. We will also distribute policy information through the CMINE networks and joint activities with other Horizon Europe Projects. WP6 will lead the co-ordination of these actions - but all Work Packages with feed into policy recommendations. Table 13: Target for policy briefs. Target Groups Reached Goal Indicator Aids Outcome/ Impact Policy-makers and senior civil servants At end of project deliver policy implications for governance and transfer of climate change science to the DRR/CCA communities across Europe Number of policymakers and senior civil servants attending meetings Downloads of policy briefs Outcomes: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Work Packages engaged; • WP 6 Lead • WP 1, WP 2, WP 3, WP 4, WP 5 – content/ findings 2.3.4 DIRECTED e-Learning Portal Development of training programmes that combine information and learning related elements of governance frameworks that can be supported by innovative technical frameworks to access, transform and integrate data and models into customised workflows for creating actionable solutions. Programmes will target vocational long-life training to support the Real World Labs, practitioners support materials and provide support and help build risk and adaptation solutions, especially those identified by Real World Labs. In order to perpetuate learning programmes, a co-designed and co-developed “Training of Trainers” programme will be developed through a dedicated workshop with trainers, and curriculum developed in response to needs, so that capability beyond the DIRECTED project is ensured. Workshops delivered both in-person and online will be highly participatory and practical, focusing on techniques, tools and tips of training management, with participants themselves designing, delivering and critiquing methods. Building on the Gaps and Opportunity Assessment (D6.3) and related Knowledge Transfer Plans put forward in the report. A suitable e-Learning portal will be identified during the project to deposit and make available all training materials produced; this will increase the ability to deliver 21st century learning and training opportunities. 34 Communication & Dissemination Strategy Table 14: Target for e-Learning. Target Groups Reached Goal Indicator Aids Outcome/ Impact DRM/ CCA practitioners Specialist Groups Co-development training of ‘Trainer of Trainers’ Programme to increase uptake of KERs (RiskTandem Framework and Data Fabric)and curriculum development Number of Workshops Number of Trainees/ Attendees Accessibility/ Use of eLearning materials Outcomes: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Technical specialists (Data Stewards) Availability of technical guidance to guide users on implementing the Data Fabric and suite of models/tools. Number of specialised technical trainings in RWLs Open accessibility guidebooks (Readme, Jupyter Notebooks) Outcomes: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 (Early Career) researchers/ scientists Early career researchers and scientists engaged a assessing learning/ training materials Number of early career researchers engaged through 1) summer schools 2) guest lectures 3) other Outcomes: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Work Packages engaged; • WP 6 Lead • WP 1, WP 2, WP 3, WP 4, WP 5 - Content providers 35 Communication & Dissemination Strategy 2.3.5 Published Papers Academic journals – academic partners will target online high impact journals with academic research and new methodologies produced by the Project. Table 15: Target for academic publishing. Target Groups Reached Goal Indicator Aids Outcome/ Impact Scientists & Researchers Publication of at least 2 papers in high impact journals Papers published Citations Outcomes: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Work Packages engaged: • WP 2, WP 3, WP 4 – for specific topic areas • All – for project wide papers 2.3.6 Conference Attendance Partners will attend and develop sessions for academic, public sector and business conferences to promote the new methodologies, data, tools/ tool-kits/ training packs and reports etc. These conferences will include EGU, COP, ICLEI, Disaster Risk, ECCA, DRR and CCA conferences – to target specific audiences where relevant. Where possible stands will be located at larger conferences promoting the full outputs of the Project in the later part of the Project. A short conference strategy will be designed to ensure that information is disseminated as widely as possible to target audiences. Conferences accepted for in 2023 include: Table 16: Conference antecedence in 2023. Conference to be attended Name of Session Date & venue Audience The Day of Hydrology –Tag der Hydrologie Session 5 Future water governance March 21–23, 2023 RuhrUniversity Bochum in Germany Specialist Audience - Water European Geosciences Union (EGU)2023 Innovations and ground-breaking technologies for natural hazard risk modelling, 23–28 April 2023 Vienna, Austria Scientists & researchers 36 Communication & Dissemination Strategy management and financing Session currently being merged Geospatial World Forum "Collaborative models for fit-for-purpose knowledge cocreation". 5 May, 2023 Rotterdam Specialist Audience – Geospatial Professionals 6th European Climate Change Adaptation Conference Tbc June 19 - 21st 2023, Dublin Specialist Audience – CCA Professionals IUGG Berlin 2023 Poster Sessions 11-20 July, 2023 Specialist Audience – Scientists & researchers RemTech Expo - international event dedicated to protection and sustainable development on the territory, remediation of contaminated sites, coasts and ports, hydrogeological risk, climate changes, seismic risk, urban regeneration and sustainable chemical industry Tbc 20 - 22 September 2023 Ferrara, Italy Specialist Audience – National & Local Authorities ECOMONDO – Green Technology Exhibition Tbc 7 - 10 November 2023, Rimini, Italy Specialist Audience – National & Local Authorities Table 17: Target for conference antecedence. Target Groups Reached Goal Indicator Aids Outcome/ Impact Scientists & Researchers Specialist Audiences – DRR & CCA professionals National & Local authorities Attendance of at least 20 high impact conferences over 4 years Attendees at sessions Outcomes: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Work Packages engaged: • WP 1 • WP 2 • WP 3 • WP 4 • WP 5 37 Communication & Dissemination Strategy dissemination of high impact research and practical work 38 Communication & Dissemination Strategy 2.3.6 Use of EU Communications & Dissemination Platforms We will also seek support from EC communication hubs such as Climate Adapt, weADAPT and through other departments and platforms of the EC to disseminate our communications more broadly. We will receive guidance on this from ‘Next edition of the Secure Societies ‘Projects to Policy Seminar’ jointly organised by DG Home and REA in Brussels in June 2023. Table 18: Target for EC communication. Target Groups Reached Goal Indicator Aids Outcome/ Impact All Publication of at least 4 articles or posts on EC platforms Publications posted Outcomes: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Work Packages engaged: • WP 6 and WP 7 Lead • All WP’s as required 2.3.7 Data Stewardship Principles During the DIRECTED Project a range of data will be developed and used and will be made open publicly on a range of data platforms including the DIRECTED Website itself and the open databases of beneficiary organisations. We will also produce a data directory stating where all of the data developed during the project is made publicly available. This will include both the data itself, the outputs from modelling work and maps produced. Work Packages engaged: • WP 2 and WP 5 Data collected through WP 3 and WP 4 will be disaggregated and anonymised where any personal details or experiences has been conveyed. Target Groups Reached Goal Indicator Aids Outcome/ Impact All A data directory published on the DIRECTED website and across our social media platforms Data Directory published Outcomes: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 39 Communication & Dissemination Strategy 3. Monitoring & Evaluation of Communication & Dissemination Impacts 3.1 Monitoring It is well known that the monitoring of communications and dissemination is inherently difficult apart from quantitative parameters such as those associated with different social media platforms – followers, impressions, engagement etc. and website analytics etc. and yet we are all aware of the power of medias to inform, engage and influence people. For the purpose of this strategy monitoring indicators can be found in each communication and dissemination action above in the tables provided. The parameters will be collected in terms of each actions as follows in Table 19: Table 19: Overview of communication monitoring. Type of communication activity Monitoring for Impact Project Launch Social media analytics from partners Project branding and website The website will set-up google analytics to record use of the platform and use google analytics to show engagement with the platform Real World Lab/ Case Study Creation Case study downloads from website and quotes in publications Numbers and professions attending RWL’s Visualisations Downloads from website, views on social media Social Media Communications Analytics as relevant from our platforms: ⚫ LinkedIn Group ⚫ Twitter ⚫ Mastodon ⚫ Instagram ⚫ YouTube Including followers, engagement, likes, shares, comments etc. This includes all partner analytics, where available Video, podcasts and webinars Views, likes & comments for videos and podcasts Webinars numbers attended, engagement (questions) & followups Quarterly Blog Shared on all relevant social media channels and from website – relevant analytics recorded as available of channel Media Pack Creation Downloads from website and provided directly to Media bodies Tool demonstrations Numbers and user groups presented to Stakeholder engagement in codesign and coproduction Numbers and professions of users engaged Policy Brief and Policy-maker meetings Downloads & dissemination of Policy Brief Numbers and user groups attending meetings Directed e-Learning portal Google analytics and attendees at workshops Published papers Publication & citation metrics 40 Communication & Dissemination Strategy As outlined in EU Guidance the result of our monitoring work will be published on the EU Horizon Europe Portal and also published in our yearly communications and dissemination reports. The monitoring system requires each partner to collect information of the communications and dissemination work they have conducted and add to the Communications and Dissemination report directly. At the time of each yearly report, we will evaluate the monitoring work and the communication outputs to reflect on what has worked, what needs improvements to reach specified audiences and how this may reflect on impacts for the Project. 3.2 Evaluation It is important to note that during much of the work of the DIRECTED Project there will be significant work conducted on evaluating responses from Project participants and stakeholders within WP 1,2,3,4,5. These will include evaluations on participant feedback for: • How scientific tools can be made most interoperable for the benefit of users • How silos and barriers can be reduced to improve governance of Disaster Management and Climate Change Adaptation • Potential users’ views on the workflows to be implemented into the Data Fabric and Training Information Please see above our approach to stakeholder engagement within the Risk-Tandem Framework in Section 2.2.2. Within WP 6 a knowledge transfer plan (gaps and opportunities assessment) will be developed to assess the institutional capacity that currently exists for knowledge transfer by assessing existing training and education opportunities. The knowledge transfer plan will be monitored and evaluated to assess the application of dissemination and exploitation activities to enable and promote the enabling ecosystem within the bounds of the RWLs to utilise the technological tools within an appropriate regulatory and economic perspective. The capacity/skills and related evolving pathways in development of governance and technological frameworks will be examined to assess how they can better address the challenges of integrated responses to risk and adaptation management. Participants in the Real World Lab events will be asked to provide feedback on how useful they found the events. This will be done via a questionnaire at the event or via survey monkey after the event. The results will be fed back to the RWL teams who will take Conference attendance Numbers attending session and user groups Use of EU Communication platforms Number of Publications 41 Communication & Dissemination Strategy appropriate actions to improve events where negative feedback is received. Later in the Project, It may also be possible to conduct a ‘Tell us your Story’ form of evaluation where participants in events will be asked if they took any actions after participating in the Real World Labs e.g. made new contacts, changed & improved practices, improved communication channels etc. This will be undertaken at least a month after the event. It may be possible to publish some of these sound-bites in articles or social media. Beyond what are integral parts of the project, we will also be using our LinkedIn User Group made up of specialist professionals who will be invited to the Group or ask to attend to inform and collaborate with relevant professionals from outside of the Project but who will benefit from and have the capacity to inform the work we are doing. These viewpoints will be fed-back to the Project participants for feedback into the work that is being undertaken. LinkedIn Groups have the potential to ask questions and bring in feedback. 4. Year 1 – Dissemination & Communication Plan The following dissemination and communication plans are guided by the reporting structure of Horizon Europe. ‚Communication on projects is a strategically planned process that starts at the outset of the action and continues throughout its entire lifetime, aimed at promoting the action and its results. It requires strategic and targeted measures for communicating about (i) the action and (ii) its results to a multitude of audiences, including the media and the public and possibly engaging in a two-way exchange.‘ ‚List the communication activities carried out in the context of the project. Use the same labels used in your DEC plan.‘ The tables below directly correlate to the recording structure of Horizon Europe and are the planned work of the beneficiaries. We will undergo further yearly communications and dissemination reviews to develop and improve the communications and dissemination we are undertaking. The review and planning phases are timetabled as follows; • September 2023 • September 2024 • September 2025 • September 2026