We aim to contribute to the European Green Deal, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Horizon Europe objectives through the development of a Geological Service for Europe, which focuses on the planet itself: the earth beneath our feet. The subsurface holds indispensable resources for European industries and opportunities to decarbonise our economy, but also requires careful management to preserve a healthy and safe living environment for Europe’s citizens. Structurally addressing the EU dimension in geological services is needed because the scale of many societally and economically relevant geological features exceeds that of individual countries. Addressing transnational and continental-scale problems requires innovation, standardisation, harmonisation as well as a shared vision. We aim to build the Geological Service for Europe based on Europe’s best practices and implement the Service with the backing of the Union. Existing geological surveys, the national custodians of geological information, have amassed huge legacies of data and information that are difficult to merge. This project will continue the harmonisation and standardisation effort initiated in earlier projects. We aim to create joint services that can support acceleration of the energy and climate transitions, as well as a larger critical mass of intra-European cooperation through convergence of our research agendas, as key steps to increase the amount and quality of results we are aiming for. A common thread in this project is innovation in ways in which subsurface information is conceptualised, organised, visualised, delivered and translated to the needs of a wide range of audiences, and the methodologies to achieve this. Building on the groundwork laid in the GeoERA program, we will scale up and out, not only scientifically, but also in involving national stakeholders in the network, in order to create support and eventually obtain a mandate for a European Service on a permanent basis.

The GeoERA proposal is put forward by the national and regional Geological Survey Organisations (GSO) of Europe. Its overall goal is to integrate the GSO’s information and knowledge on subsurface energy, water and raw material resources, to support sustainable use of the subsurface in addressing Europe’s grand challenges. The GeoERA consortium will organise and co-fund together with the EC a joint call for transnational research projects that address the development of 1) interoperable, pan-European data and information services on the distribution of geo-energy, groundwater and raw material resources; 2) common assessment frameworks and methodologies supporting better understanding and management of the water-energy-raw materials nexus and potential impacts and risks of subsurface use; 3) knowledge and services aimed at European, national and regional policy makers, industry and other stakeholders to support a more integrated and efficient management and more responsible and publicly accepted exploitation and use of the subsurface. The transnational projects selected in the call will be implemented by the consortium partners themselves, who provide their co-funding in-kind. GeoERA will contribute to the overall EU objective of building the ERA through enhanced cooperation and coordination of national and regional Geological Survey research programmes. GeoERA will also include forward looking activities, including the creation of opportunities for future collaborative research, and the feasibility assessment of an Article 185 initiative in Applied Geoscience as follow-up to the GeoERA ERA-NET towards the development of the ultimate goal of delivering a Geological Service for Europe.

Many European regions and communities have limited experience and resources to integrate available local and global data, models, and concepts into a context-specific Climate Risk Assessment (CRA). For an authoritative CRA, local data and evidence need to be integrated with established pan-European reference data and scenarios. CLIMAAX will provide substantial financial, analytical and practical support to regions and communities to develop and improve their CRAs by a number of activities. CLIMAAX will deliver (a) a standardized CRA framework CRA built on current community experience and best-practices, (b) a Toolbox with data, models and utilities to provide access to European and global open data archives integrated with local data and procedures, (c) five European pilot regional CRAs to shape the framework and toolset, (d) financial support for at least 50 regions to execute a context-specific CRA, (e) CRA guidance material and online helpdesk for other European regions, and (f) a proposal to upscale results into the future operationalization of the regional CRA support function. The main target groups are regional authorities, community organizations (sectoral stakeholder organizations, NGOs, citizen networks) and Civil Protection Agencies focusing on climate risk management and emergency response. The project will engage a large Community of Practice to co-creates the framework and toolbox and co-define the financial support application and monitoring criteria. The main outcome will be a demonstrated acceleration of the design and implementation of regional risk management plans for climate adaptation and emergency response.