An ACCC delegation of 28 researchers visited Brussels in a 3-day event. The Delegation was invited and hosted by MEP Sirpa Pietikainen. The event aimed to present ACCC knowledge and projects relevant to the EU Agenda, and in turn, invite EU Parliament and Commission officials to learn about ACCC, ask questions on the science, and propose next steps of action together.
We sent out personal invitation to relevant members of the EU Parliament and EU Commission to bring forward their questions and needs for science evidence for the use of informed policy, innovation, and citizen engagement.
The trip was structured in 3 days:
- Day 1: Introduction to the European Parliament and history
- Day 2: EU Parliament full-day seminar, co-organised by MEP Sirpa Pietikainen’s office and ACCC.
- Day 3: EU Missions roundtable at Helsinki Office, organized by ACCC.
Our ACCC researchers gave short talks in a 3 Session seminar at the European Parliament ( Day 2) covering the themes:
- Session 1: Land use, Agriculture, and Forestry
- Session 2: Education, Society & International research collaboration
- Session 3: Solving climate & air quality challenges via energy, transport & nature-based solutions
The talks were followed by an open discussion to understand the needs from the perspectives of the policy-makers and the researchers.
The last day of the trip, the ACCC Delegation met representatives from 4 of the 5 EU Missions from the EU Commission. The focus of the roundtable meeting was to present the ACCC activities relevant to Missions Climate Adaptation, Soils, Neutral Cities and Oceans, and in turn hear from the represetatives how we can contribute the Missions calls and networks. We aimed to focus the dialogue on the co-creation processes.
Overall, it was a very successful event where we had the opportunity to get to know the EU Institutes better and dialogue directly with the officials.
