New national advisory bodies launched across Austria, Bulgaria, and Poland to optimize co-creation strategies and overcome barriers to Nature-Based Solutions in GreenEsteem project.

As European cities increasingly grapple with the realities of climate change, Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) such as green roofs, sustainable drainage systems, and urban parks are recognized as essential lifelines for urban resilience. Yet, their implementation and long-term maintenance often fail due to a critical disconnect between urban planners, citizens, researchers, and local resources. To break down these silos and ensure urban greening initiatives thrive, the Horizon Europe GreenEsteem project has officially launched its Expert Support Groups (ESGs).

Designed to directly support the project’s mission, these new national advisory bodies across Austria, Bulgaria, and Poland will engage closely in project initiatives to optimize co-creation strategies and overcome implementation and maintenance barriers for Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). Following a comprehensive mapping of local and regional ecosystems, these groups have been assembled to include voices with diverse expertise ranging from researchers, policymakers, and local government officials to practitioners, local businesses, civil society representatives, and citizens.

Rather than acting as distant observers, the ESGs are deeply integrated into the initiative’s day-to-day efforts. Members will participate in key meetings and project events, including specialized trainings, expert roundtables, and symposia, ensuring a continuous and dynamic exchange of ideas. Their primary objective is to discuss, identify, and address key challenges and potential opportunities in translating NBS research into practice. By keeping the project team up-to-date on the latest environmental and policy developments, the ESGs will help optimize strategies to overcome local barriers, ultimately enhancing the long-term impact of green infrastructure across different urban contexts.

The Bulgarian Expert Support Group members are featured on the GreenEsteem project website.

Driving Change Through Shared Knowledge

While “urban greening” is the public goal, the real engine driving the ESGs is putting shared knowledge to work. GreenEsteem recognises that the biggest threat to green spaces isn’t a lack of initial funding, but a lack of the skills and resources needed to maintain them long-term. To solve this, the ESGs bring together experts from various sectors to translate academic theory into practical, community-supported solutions. By bridging this gap, the resulting Nature-Based Solutions become much more sustainable and deeply rooted in local communities.

A Four-Pillar Approach to Innovation

Established in Austria, Bulgaria, and Poland, the ESGs are national advisory bodies uniquely structured around the “Quadruple Helix” innovation model. This framework intentionally moves away from top-down planning. Instead, the ESGs are composed of independent leaders representing four critical sectors:

• Academia and Research: Providing scientific rigour, ecosystem service analysis, and educational insights.
• Public Authorities: Ensuring alignment with local governance, civic budgets, and municipal policy.
• The Private Sector: Supplying technical implementation expertise and sustainable business practices.
• Civil Society: Voicing community needs, youth perspectives, and grassroots environmental activism

Guiding the Green Transition

The core role of these national ESGs is to support the collaborative knowledge valorisation (CKV) of Nature-Based Solutions throughout the 24-month project. Operating as strategic sounding boards, these experts work closely with the GreenEsteem team to anchor the project in reality. They actively provide support by:

• Identifying key barriers and potential opportunities within diverse urban contexts.
• Sharing emerging policy trends and practical insights from their respective fields.
• Participating in national expert roundtables to validate project findings.
• Reviewing and refining targeted training modules, strategic roadmaps, and policy recommendations.

A Collaborative Blueprint for the Future

By continuously embedding stakeholder perspectives into the project’s DNA, the ESGs ensure that GreenEsteem’s outputs are not only evidence-based but genuinely responsive to national and local needs. They serve as the vital link that transforms abstract scientific knowledge into locally relevant, actionable, and socially supported solutions for sustainable urban environments

Co-creation in action: Residents and stakeholders brainstorm revitalisation plans for a local lake at a recent GreenEsteem Living Lab workshop. (Photo: TEAM SOFIA)

Links

Project Website: https://www.greenesteem.eu/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greenesteem/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61582713119137

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenesteem_eu/

Keywords

Nature-based solutions, expert support groups, knowledge valorisation, quadruple helix collaboration, ecosystem-services, participatory planning, urban greening, climate resilience

GreenEsteem is launching a transformative initiative to bridge the gap between scientific research and local urban needs through collaborative knowledge creation. Citizens and decision-makers will be empowered to co-create sustainable Nature-Based Solutions in two “Living Labs” in Poland and Bulgaria, through workshops, training activities and a comprehensive, interactive online platform.

Ongoing transitions such as the twin (green and digital) transition are vital, yet they strongly affect our daily lives. In such dynamic times, the way knowledge is created and by whom, becomes an increasingly significant question. To ensure these changes provide full social and environmental benefits, they must be based on science while remaining sensitive to real societal needs and local contexts. GreenEsteem aims to contribute to a future of more inclusive knowledge creation through the approach known as Collaborative Knowledge Valorisation (CKV) — a coordinated process of co-creation between science, policy, business, and civil society.

In the course of the project, best practices in the field will be tested and applied in different local contexts and then shared more widely, allowing the knowledge and skills needed for these practices to be taken up by practitioners across Europe and beyond. By involving diverse voices, this project aims to develop a broader understanding of expertise, to build a sense of ownership and to ensure that research outputs better match societal and environmental needs in the long term.

Nature-Based Solutions as a Testing Ground

Nature-Based Solutions (NbS), such as sustainable drainage, green roofs, community gardens, and nature-oriented playgrounds, are powerful tools for fighting climate change, biodiversity loss, and urban heat. While these solutions are promising, recent experience shows they face major barriers in implementation and long-term maintenance. A lack of local knowledge, resources, and skills often prevents these green spaces from flourishing and thus, from providing the benefits nature and people need.

The core goal of GreenEsteem is to bridge the gap between theoretical concepts and practical needs in the field of sustainable NbS through methodology that aims to be:

• Participatory, by evaluating, adopting and promoting participatory methods of co-evaluation, co-design, citizen budgeting and place-making that enable a high level of participation in research and decision-making.
• Inclusive, by promoting equality and diversity, in the pursuit of overcoming hierarchies across different societal spheres in the creation and evaluation of knowledge.
• Experiential and place-based, by establishing living labs that engage with local stakeholders at different stages of urban planning, including the evaluation and design of NbS.

From Hands-on Living Labs to Virtual Reality and Interactive Online Tools

The project advances best practices through two “Living Labs” in Konin (Poland) and Sofia (Bulgaria), which act as real-world testing grounds for several key activities. The process begins with co-evaluation and mapping to identify “hotspots”—neglected spaces or past projects—to determine success factors and gaps. To foster deeper engagement, immersive Virtual Reality (VR) co-design tools will be utilised, allowing residents to become active co-creators of urban NbS that reflect local conditions and needs. This is paired with the “backcasting” method, where stakeholders envision a desired scenario for the future to then identify the concrete actions needed to get there.

Based on identified capacities, barriers, opportunities and needs in the implementation of NbS, action plans will be co-designed for cities to set a course of action for implementing systemic changes that widen the diffusion of NbS and the evaluation of knowledge in this area. Through strategic roadmaps, GreenEsteem will outline follow-up steps for enhancing collaboration, fostering innovation, and translating academic knowledge into practical solutions. These roadmaps will also include a financial plan for sustainability, to ensure project’s wisdom fulfils its long-term impact.

Based on these experiences, five comprehensive training modules will be developed to help researchers, city officials, and citizens to create knowledge and solutions jointly and effectively. The project will be accompanied by a comprehensive online platform – ensuring that stakeholders beyond the project and across Europe can acquire the knowledge and skills needed to boost knowledge co-creation for sustainable NbS in their local contexts.

A Consortium Bridging Natural and Social Sciences, Academia and Practice

The GreenEsteem Consortium brings together six partners from three countries, Poland, Bulgaria and Austria, bridging highly relevant natural and social sciences disciplines related to NBS and linking different levels of experience in R&I projects. Both living lab locations – Konin and Sofia – are managed by a university-local actor partnership. The coordinators from Adam Mickiewicz University will bring their extensive academic and project-related experience in the field of ecosystem services, NbS, urban resilience and climate change adaptation, and will cooperate with Konin City Hall. In Bulgaria, the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy will cooperate with the CSO Urban Policies Association (TEAM SOFIA), both of which are experienced in NbS R&I projects and dedicated to improving trust and participation in local decision-making processes. The coordinator will be supported by the SYNYO team, which is also responsible for communication, dissemination and exploitation, as well as for designing the project platform together with TEAM SOFIA. The Climate Alliance Austria will contribute with their broad network in Austria and beyond to support knowledge transfers through trainings and multiplication activities.

Project news and tools can be found on the GreenEsteem website and social media channels.

Links

Project Website: https://www.greenesteem.eu/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greenesteem/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61582713119137

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenesteem_eu/

Keywords

Nature-based solutions, knowledge valorisation, quadruple helix collaboration, nature-based solutions, ecosystem-services, participatory planning, open science