User Engagement Plan

The main objective of the APPLICATE project is to develop enhanced predictive capacity for weather and climate in the Arctic and beyond, and to determine the influence of Arctic climate change on the Northern Hemisphere. To produce usable and trustworthy predictive information for decision making, APPLICATE will actively engage with stakeholders, including policy makers, businesses and society within and outside the EU. Only by effectively exchanging information with stakeholders and co-developing knowledge, can we assure the stakeholder-relevance of the project results and its impact by enhancing their capacity to adapt to long-term climate change. The proactive dialogue with users is being performed using modern and interactive user engagement mechanisms that are being developed and maintained throughout the project. This updated plan describes already applied engagement approaches and activities, as well as those planned for the rest of the project. It provides a detailed description of the three main user categories defined by the project – key, primary and secondary. It builds around four main mechanisms of user engagement to be applied in the project: i) User Group involvement, ii) Participation in relevant conferences and meetings and organization of workshops, iii) Case studies development, iv) User blog and interviews. Dedicated policy events will be held in Brussels (first half 2020), in Akureyri, Iceland, at the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) in March 2020 and at the Third Science Ministerial in Japan November 2020. In addition, different communication channels are being utilized as a part of the project, enhancing information exchange, knowledge transfer and impact, presenting the first step towards user engagement, reaching and impacting a broad and diverse group of users