**Sustainability Science and Citizens Participation: Building a Science-Citizens-Policy Interface to Address Grand Societal Challenges in Europe**

Carlo Sessa *ISIS – Institute of Studies for the Integration of Systems Italy* 

### **1. Introduction**

The recent *Europe 2020 Strategy* adopted by the European Union formulated ambitious policy objectives in areas such as climate change, energy security, demographic ageing or resource efficiency. The Europe 2020 flagship initiative *Innovation Union* called for linking future EU funding programs more closely to these objectives by putting a stronger focus on tackling societal challenges. These will be addressed, amongst other things, by launching *European Innovation Partnerships* in areas in which government intervention is clearly justified and where is deemed necessary to combine the EU, national and regional efforts in Research and Development (R&D) and demand-side policies. Examples of such partnerships areas of great concern for the European citizens: active and healthy ageing; smart and livable cities; water-efficient Europe; smart mobility for Europe's citizens and business; agriculture productivity and sustainability.

The European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs) are new avenues for doing sustainability research combining scientists, policy makers, citizens and civil society organizations, and sectoral stakeholders in a shared process. This chapter presents a method for doing participatory research and evaluation with panels of randomly selected citizens, in sustainability domains related to the grand societal challenges addressed by the Europe 2020 strategy.

The method has been designed and applied in three pilot EU funded projects of knowledge brokerage and participatory assessment, related to sustainable cities (RAISE: www.raiseeu.org), sustainable urban transport (MOVE TOGETHER: www.move-togetherexhibition.net) and sustainable coastal water management (AWARE: www.aware-eu.net). Only in the latter project, however, the method has been fully tested at European and local levels, and subject to a fully-fledged evaluation activity.

The following sections will present the method and the results of the more recent and mature pilot experience – the AWARE project after which the method is named – and discuss theoretical foundations and future prospects for practical application.

Sustainability Science and Citizens Participation:

implementation and outcomes.

Fig. 1. Water policy assessment process

**IF**

One of the most sensitive biological quality elements to nutrients enrichment and/or pollutants concentration

**OR**

One of the nutrients/pollutants being discharged in significant quantities

Checking the significance of nutrients enrichment and/or concentration of pollutants

Building a Science-Citizens-Policy Interface to Address Grand Societal Challenges in Europe 125

The specific issue addressed in the AWARE project was the deterioration of coastal waters in Europe, and how EU funded research and EU and local policies may help to reduce deterioration and achieve a good ecological status of waters by 2020. This environmental goal is a core objective of the EU Water Framework Directive (European Commission, 2000). This piece of EU legislation provides a coherent framework for the implementation of policies and the assessment of water quality across EU Member States, including river basins, transitional and coastal waters. The outcome expected from a consistent application of the EU water policy assessment process – illustrated in the figure below – is the achievement of good environmental (ecological and chemical) status and the related benefits at a proportionate cost **or** the maintenance of the water body in a moderate quality status with reduced benefits, due to the disproportionate costs of achieving a better quality status.

In this respect, the AWARE pilot experiments can supply a model for future implementation of participatory assessment of the water policies, whereby lay citizens and stakeholders are involved together with experts and policy makers in AWARE-like processes. These may be especially helpful to assess the "proportionality" of costs against benefits in specific case studies circumstances, because the criteria to be used in the assessment are not uniquely technical, requiring instead the explicit consideration of social norms and values. However,

PRESSURE STATE - IMPACT RESPONSE

Do not meet the conditions required for good ecological status

> Moderate or worse ecological status by 2015

> Good ecological status by 2015

> > **THEN**

**Exemptions**: - Extension of deadlines - Temporary deterioration or new modifications - Programme of measures to achieve less stringent

objectives

**Cost-effectiveness check**: There exist costeffective options to achieve good ecological status ?

**No**

**Yes**

C O S T E F F E C T I V E N E S S A N A L Y S I S

Most cost effective programme of measures

policies, would require systemic and long lasting actions to be implemented beyond electoral terms, and a deeper consensus and commitment of all actors involved. Policy makers also gain further confirmation that decisions successfully involving all actors affected, through increased awareness for instance, are more effective in their
