Local Insights: A Conversation with Real World Lab Practitioners

Key Information

Date: 27 March 2026, 11am CET

Location: Online

Overview

Across Europe, regions are facing increasingly complex climate and disaster risks. Yet translating risk assessments into actionable, locally legitimate decisions remains a persistent challenge.

The DIRECTED project has developed and tested a Real World Lab (RWL) approach across diverse European contexts, including the Capital Region of Denmark, Rhine-Erft region in Germany, the Danube Region with a focus on Vienna and the Hungarian Zala Region and the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy. These labs bring together civil protection authorities, municipalities, water authorities, first responders, researchers, businesses and communities to co-design climate adaptation and resilience strategies grounded in real governance constraints.

In this webinar, practitioners from multiple regions will join Dr Max Steinhausen, DIRECTED Project Coordinator, to reflect candidly on how the RWL model works in practice – what enabled progress, where tensions emerged, and which elements are transferable to other European contexts. The session will examine how the RWL approach supports adaptive governance, cross-sector collaboration and risk-informed decision-making under uncertainty.

Participants will gain practical insights into how participatory, evidence-informed processes can strengthen disaster risk management and climate adaptation planning across Europe. The insights will be particularly relevant to regional authorities, EU-funded projects and policymakers seeking scalable models for participatory resilience governance.

By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Understand how the Real World Lab approach operates in practice and how it enables collaboration between civil protection authorities, municipalities, researchers and local stakeholders.
2. Identify key lessons from DIRECTED Real World Labs in Copenhagen, Rhine-Erft, the Danube Region and Emilia-Romagna, including what facilitated progress and what challenges emerged.
3. Assess how participatory approaches such as the Real World Lab model can support adaptive governance and risk-informed decision-making in their own regional or institutional contexts.

Registration details

If you are interested in attending please register via the Zoom link below: