RESIST is a flagship Horizon Europe-funded project dedicated to strengthening climate resilience across European regions through innovation, collaboration and science-based adaptation. RESIST brings together 56 partners from 14 countries and works closely with regional authorities, research organisations, SMEs and civil society. The project’s overarching goal is to demonstrate and scale transformative climate change adaptation strategies, especially in regions facing high vulnerability to climate-related hazards.
At the heart of RESIST are four large-scale demonstrator regions – Southwest Finland, Central Denmark, Catalonia (Spain) and Central Portugal – where tailored adaptation solutions are being co-developed and implemented. These solutions address pressing climate challenges such as drought, floods, wildfires, heatwaves and soil erosion, often in combination. Each demonstrator region collaborates with “twin” regions in Europe, enabling mutual learning and the transfer of successful adaptation approaches to areas with different capacities, geographies and climate risks.
RESIST takes a systemic approach to climate resilience. It integrates nature-based solutions, digital tools like immersive digital twins and inclusive governance models that involve citizens, policy-makers, scientists and businesses.
ZSI leads the work on transformative social innovation, focusing on how climate adaptation can drive lasting change in social practices, relationships and regional governance. By implementing a Transformative Social Innovation (TSI) Strategy, ZSI supports the large-scale demonstrators and their twin regions in embedding new ways of doing, organising, knowing and framing climate action. ZSI’s work ensures that technical solutions are grounded in inclusive, socially driven processes that build long-term resilience.
By working at the intersection of science, innovation and community action, RESIST contributes to the European Green Deal and Climate Adaptation Mission. It demonstrates how regional adaptation, when guided by collaboration and systems thinking, can be both locally rooted and widely replicable.
