Photo credit: VDI/VDE-IT
On 4 June 2025, the TiCCA4DANU project officially kicked off with partners from across Europe coming together online to start a three-year collaboration. Funded under the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, the project sets out to support systemic and fair climate adaptation in the Danube Macro-Region — one of Europe’s most climate-vulnerable areas.
Stretching from the Black Forest to the Black Sea, the Danube region is home to 115 million people. It faces intensifying climate risks such as heatwaves, droughts, flooding, and biodiversity loss. Many areas, however, lack the necessary resources and innovation capacity to adapt effectively.
TiCCA4DANU tackles this challenge by promoting a new level of action: the city-region. This approach connects cities with their surrounding rural and peri-urban areas, ensuring that climate adaptation is planned and implemented in a coordinated and systemic way.
The project sees climate adaptation not as a single-sector issue, but as a transformation that cuts across health, energy, agriculture, mobility, infrastructure, and ecosystems. It is guided by the principles of Transformative Innovation Policy — encouraging co-creation, experimentation, and inclusive governance to drive long-term change.
As pioneers, four pilot city-regions — Burgas (Bulgaria), Debrecen (Hungary), Maribor (Slovenia), and Suceava (Romania) — will co-design and test innovative governance models, including Local Green Deals. Their experiences will help shape adaptation strategies that can be replicated across the wider Danube Region and beyond.
Over the next three years, TiCCA4DANU will demonstrate that climate resilience is not just a necessity, but an opportunity. By fostering innovation, new alliances, and cross-border collaboration, the project aims to create lasting impact for communities across the Danube and Europe as a whole.
For the full details of the event and official announcements, read our press release here.
Follow the project journey on our social media channels!
