Walking the innovation path with Cristian Matti

This time, we spoke with Cristian Matti, from the Joint Research Centre, facilitator of the Climate Adaptation Experimentation Journey. This journey brings along the experience of Balaton (HU), Canarias (ES), Joensuu (FI), Mazovia (PL) and Spain.

What role do you envision for territorial innovation in supporting the transition to a climate-resilient future? 

Territorial innovation must shift from a static support function to a dynamic driver of systemic change that explicitly connects economic goals with resilience. This reframing challenges the status quo by viewing climate adaptation not merely as a cost, but as an investment that generates new, place-based economic opportunities and competitiveness. The focus should be on actively co-creating "opportunity spaces" that enable diverse local actors to design integrated solutions for complex challenges. Therefore, policymakers must promote governance models that embed climate adaptation as a core horizontal objective across all innovation strategies, rather than confining it to a vertical silo.

Climate adaptation is an investment, not a cost.

How can local and regional authorities harness this potential to drive sustainable development in their territories? 

Authorities harness this potential by adopting a systemic policy portfolio approach that integrates multiple, coordinated interventions across all levels and sectors. The portfolio must function as both an instrument and an approach, linking smaller, incremental projects to overarching, long-term climate adaptation and innovation goals. This strategic alignment maximises complementarities, enabling the efficient flow of resources and knowledge between local experiments and regional strategies. Therefore, local and regional authorities should use tools such as the Opportunity Spaces Mapping Tool to explicitly co-design and manage integrated policy portfolios.

Use portfolios to link short-term action to long-term goals.

The Navigator highlights the importance of multi-level governance collaboration to promote territorial innovation. Can you provide examples of successful initiatives or partnerships that have facilitated climate-resilient innovation at the territorial level, and what lessons can be drawn from these experiences? 

Successful initiatives demonstrate multi-level and multi-actor collaboration to build resilience. Mértola, Portugal, serves as a prime example, using a portfolio approach to address desertification by integrating the local community, research, and EU LIFE funding to experiment with nature-based solutions and agroecology. Similarly, the Basque Country embeds climate resilience into its Euskadi 2040 strategy through a multi-level and inclusive foresight process integrating multiple dimensions for addressing transformative change. Lessons show that success requires strong government leadership that bridges top-down strategic direction with bottom-up experimentation and co-ownership among stakeholders. Therefore, policymakers must actively design governance structures that institutionalise collaboration across all levels and sectors.

Collaboration across levels is the foundation of resilience.

Different types of territories, such as urban, rural, or coastal areas, may face different climate-related challenges. How can the Navigator be a useful tool to help explore innovation opportunities, and thereby develop tailored strategies for each of them?  

The Navigator is a flexible tool that enforces a place-based analysis by explicitly structuring conversations around three aspects: timing, unique place-based conditions, and the evolving capacity to act. For diverse territories, this tool can help tailor strategies by contextualising global trends (such as climate risks) to local assets (such as S3 priorities and infrastructure). It transforms generic adaptation challenges (for example, urban heat or rural water scarcity) into specific innovation opportunities relevant to the local industrial and social fabric. Policymakers should use any system innovation approach available in their hands to facilitate sense-making and challenge assumptions about where climate-adaptive innovation can emerge in their unique territorial context.

Context matters: innovation must be place-based.

Europe is rich and diverse, and not all territories are currently at the same stage of innovation. In your opinion, what is the best way to start giving steps to develop transformative innovative solutions to a territory’s challenges? 

The best first step is to initiate purposeful conversations that move from isolated discussions to integrated dialogues, effectively building agency as the collective capacity to act. This process starts by actively contextualizing a diverse set of knowledge to local conditions and anchoring emerging solutions within local networks and institutions. This inclusive, non-linear approach ensures solutions are not imposed but co-created, fostering the collective intelligence needed to orchestrate systemc intermediation and navigate uncertainty. So, authorities must establish multi-stakeholder platforms that emphasize shared learning and challenge-based problem-solving.

Start with conversation to unlock collective action.

The Navigator emphasises the importance of the participation of scientific and non-scientific actors in experimentation processes. Why do you think the interlink between different types of partners (not only scientific) should be considered when developing new knowledge? 

The interlink is vital because developing actionable knowledge requires integrating scientific rigour with practical, context-specific insights from non-scientific actors. Actionable knowledge consists of information and understanding that concretely help policymakers develop systemic policy mixes. Engaging diverse partners—from civil society to business—ensures that new knowledge is both relevant (addressing real-world needs) and embedded (owned and implementable by local actors). Therefore, policy design should prioritise participatory co-creation processes that transform abstract scientific concepts into practice-based solutions.

Actionable knowledge links science to local context.