Engaging citizens for a resilient Europe: methods and insights

Collaborative efforts between citizens, decision-makers and researchers can significantly impact climate adaptation research and decision-making. Research shows that co-exploration, co-production and transdisciplinary methods produce more relevant insights, which in turn influences decision-making more effectively^1.

There is an increasing call for innovative, collaborative approaches to engage citizens in climate adaptation and resilience projects, both within Europe and globally. Various methods and frameworks have been proposed to support citizen engagement. But which methods truly work?

Here, we explore engagement techniques for climate adaptation and resilience explored within the AGORA project. If you would like to contribute information on citizen engagement processes or provide feedback to AGORA on these methods, consider attending our session at Adaptation Futures 2023 titled “Good practice community and citizen engagement for accelerating a climate resilient future in Europe and beyond” or participate in our online survey.

Tandem framework

The Tandem framework^2 seeks to enhance interactions between participants, including citizens, in both decision-making and research processes. Inspired by the principle of a tandem bicycle, this framework underscores the importance of collaboration. Just as two bikers must synchronize their efforts to move forward, participants must communicate and adjust their individual approaches for productive collaboration.

The Tandem framework has been effectively employed in various projects and decision-making processes, from co-designing climate services for agriculture in Nigeria^3, co-designing climate services to support adaptation to natural hazards in Sweden^4, co-designing climate services for water planning in Colombia^5 to aiding collaborative climate change solutions in Lusaka, Zambia^6. Tandem has also been integrated into SEI’s research on European climate risk assessments^7.

Delphi method

The Delphi method employs a series of surveys interspersed with controlled feedback to gather information and build consensus without the need for face-to-face meetings^8. With the anonymity of participants ensured, the aggregated group opinion is fed back to participants for further reflection.

There are six main phases for using the Delphi method^9: (i) setting up the Delphi process – including selecting respondents and generating a requisite number of focal issues, (ii) software/delivery choice, (iii) developing question items and response scales, (iv) providing feedback between a requisite number of Delphi rounds, (v) preventing and dealing with panellist drop out, and (vi) analysing and presenting the Delphi yield^9.

The method has been successfully applied in various scenarios, such as scenario analysis of football teams during the COVID-19 pandemic^11, or  exploring the best ways to deliver education services^12.

Both the Tandem and Delphi methods are being considered, adapted and used throughout the AGORA  project. Their primary goal is to pinpoint best practices for citizen engagement methodologies, create evaluation frameworks and co-design an online platform for knowledge exchange and networking.