Researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities at KTU will develop and test new social and technological instruments that can transform the relationship between biodiversity and society into a more sustainable one and will propose energy and digital transition (twin transition) that will ensure social justice.
Two projects by the Faculty researchers are funded by the EU’s main funding programme Horizon Europe for research and innovation: “Digital, Technological and Social Innovation Mixes Enabling Transformation for Biodiversity and Equity” (led by a chief researcher Dr Florian Rabitz), and “EU Decarbonisation in Times of Crises: Exploring Social Innovations And Enhancing An Equitable Twin Transition (Decrises)”, led by Prof. Dr Aistė Balžekienė.
From rapid biodiversity loss to long-term sustainability
Some objectives of Horizon Europe include contributing to the fight against climate change and the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It supports better dissemination of expert knowledge and the creation of technological innovations.
The project led by Dr Florian Rabitz will explore the role of innovation for transformative change in the conservation and use of biological diversity.
The project will use a broad mix of methods (including foresight, scenario analysis, and text mining) and will collaborate with different pre-existing seed projects across several European countries in areas such as agriculture, food, and energy. “KTU will lead a working package that implements a horizon scan for social and technological innovation, to identify potential emerging solutions that are presently still on the margins of stakeholder perceptions,” says Rabitz.
The consortium is led by Coventry University in the UK, with partners from Germany, Greece, Hungary, and the Netherlands. The KTU team will consist of Dr Florian Rabitz, Prof. Dr Eglė Butkevičienė, and Dr Rimantas Rauleckas.
The opportunity to receive Horizon Europe funding for projects in KTU provides the ability for researchers and the university to collaborate and work with leading European experts on biodiversity governance and transformative change.
Social innovations for EU’s digital and green transition
The European Union (EU) is actively promoting the rapid digitisation and decarbonisation of the economy by encouraging the development of industrial infrastructure, the creation of green jobs and investment in renewable energy systems. Achieving these transition goals is associated with significant social, cultural, economic, infrastructural and political changes at different levels of governance. The concept of multi-level governance (MLG) highlights the complex relationship between political mobilisation (politics), policy making (politics) and state structures (polity) as important aspects of governance.
By involving the participants of all these systems in governance and policy-making practices, multi-level governance should strengthen representation, participation, openness and effective responsibility of policy and decision-making. However, there are challenges in implementing multi-level governance due to the rise of populism, polarisation, as well as economic, political and environmental crises, which is why the project aims to identify the gaps in the multi-level governance system. Prof. Balžekienė says that the intention is to develop and propose twin transition alternatives that ensure social justice while promoting democracy, civil engagement, shared responsibility for policy and responsible decision-making.
The KTU researchers involved in the project will be responsible for research on civil society participation and its role in shaping and supporting a just twin transition.
Project participants include KTU, Riga Stradiņš University (Latvia), Comenius University (Slovakia), LUT University (Finland), Western Norway Research Institute (Norway), IMP-PAN Gdansk (Poland), Greifswald University (Germany) and Pensoft Publishers (Bulgaria).
