Search the EPA Research Database

Project title

JustCities Hub

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

University College Cork (UCC)

Lead Applicant

Niall Dunphy

Project Abstract

JustCities Hub encapsulates a combined concern for embracing the challenges of climate action and promoting stable, just, and healthy urban environments. It adopts a nested research design with emphasis on the connection between scientific knowledge and practice. On the one hand it seeks to capture and explore timely knowledge on enabling climate justice change in the city and on the other it seeks to engage in problem-solving and evaluating solutions for climate change from a transdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder perspective. JustCities Hub aims to contribute to urban climate policy by improving collaborative scientific and public service expertise in sustainable transitions centred on principles of justice, resilience, and community vibrancy. The JustCities Hub has five objectives: 1. Rethinking frameworks for delivering urban sustainability through partnership, experimentation, and service provision. 2. Critically reviewing existing climate action service infrastructure for supporting just transitions at city level. 3. Mobilising and supporting innovation through small transdisciplinary action-based interventions. 4. Developing a shared understanding of assets and opportunities for a just transition in the city underpinned by a commitment to deliberative engagement and transdisciplinary learning. 5. Developing an integrative model for engagement that supports and enables a diverse and vibrant democracy in the city. JustCities Hub includes a wide-ranging programme of stakeholder engagements including city level state agencies, local authorities, civil society agencies, intermediaries, policymakers and local residents. The project also explores and evaluates mechanisms for mobilising the development of micro-interventions, in a manner that supports, encourages, and empowers the potential and the diverse spaces of civic engagement within the city. Furthermore, it provides a strategic plan to bolster climate justice in the city through co-creation and foresight activities. The outcomes of the JustCities Hub will inform the National Dialogue on Climate Action and Local Authority Climate Action plans within Ireland and the EU Mission Cities Programme spanning a wider European effort in terms of customising approaches and structures for engagement with society at city level and building public support while accelerating the pace of climate action and ensuring climate justice principles are realised.

Grant Approved

�593,579.27

Research Hub

Climate Change

Research Theme

Addressing the Societal Dimension of Environmental Challenges

Start Date

31/03/2024

Initial Projected Completion Date

30/03/2028