News

Victoria Reyes-García receives an ERC Proof of Concept grant linked to the LICCI project

Victoria Reyes-García receives an ERC Proof of Concept grant linked to the LICCI project

By LICCI TEAM
on 2020-01-13
  • Research

Victoria Reyes-García ICREA Research Professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) is one of the 76 top researchers that will receive ERC Proof of Concept grants. This top-up funding is awarded to ERC grantees to explore the innovation potential of their scientific discoveries and bring the results of their frontier research closer to market or society. This final injection of €11.4 million pushes the total number of ERC Proof of Concept funded projects during 2019 to 200. With the additional money researchers can, for example, investigate business opportunities, establish intellectual property rights, conduct technical validation, or explore the social benefits of their frontier research findings.

The new grant will help the LICCI team, led by Victoria Reyes-García, to create an Indigenous Climate Change Impacts Observation Network (ICCION) oriented to bring Indigenous knowledge and perspectives to climate change policy fora.

The ERC project Local Indicators of Climate Change Impacts (LICCI) explores the potential of Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) to contribute to climate research, but only tangentially addresses the marginalized position faced by Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC) to bring their knowledge and perspectives to climate change research and policy fora. This new project will contribute to bring IPLC’s knowledge and perspectives to climate change policy fora 1) by engaging with IPLC on the co-design of a digital Indigenous Climate Change Impacts Observation Network (ICCION) and 2) by engaging with the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which has the mandate to strengthen the role played by IPLC in addressing and responding to climate change.

The Proof of Concept grant amounts to a total of €150,000 for an 18-month period, which in this case will go towards the creation of an Indigenous Climate Change Impacts Observation Network.

ICCION is an innovative response to the IPCC call for more ground level data as it will expand the geographical and temporal coverage of data collection on local indicators of climate change impacts. Moreover, partnering with IPLC and international organizations constitutes an important social innovation, as these alliances might facilitate IPLC effective participation in climate change science-policy fora. Finally, ICCION innovates in developing technological solutions to address technical (i.e., low internet access) and social concerns (i.e., Indigenous data sovereignty) that are of particular relevance for IPLC, but which have often been neglected in other technological developments.

The long-term establishment of the observation network proposed here will contribute to give IPLC a more relevant voice in global climate policy fora, not only by informing climate change impact research, but also making it more socially acceptable.

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.