In April 2025, the University of Jyväskylä in Finland became the focal point for launching DeCrises, an ambitious research initiative funded by Horizon Europe. This project unites an exceptional consortium of international researchers and institutions dedicated to understanding and managing the complexities of Europe’s intersecting socio-economic crises. With the rapid advancement of digitalisation and the pressing urgency of climate change, DeCrises seeks to unravel governance mechanisms capable of adapting to multifaceted disruptions while upholding social equity. Over the course of three years, the consortium’s interdisciplinary expertise will foster innovative pathways for resilient and inclusive governance amidst today’s turbulent transitions.
At its core, DeCrises addresses the challenge of “twin transitions” – the simultaneous digital and climate revolutions reshaping societies – emphasizing the interdependence of these transformational processes. By recognizing that overlapping crises exacerbate inequalities, the project aims to formulate governance frameworks that not only accommodate rapid technological change and environmental imperatives but also prioritize inclusivity. The ultimate goal is to design adaptive governance systems that empower citizens, regional actors, and policy-makers to collaboratively respond to disruptions without leaving vulnerable populations behind.
Structurally, DeCrises operates through seven meticulously defined work packages (WPs), each targeting a critical dimension of governance and innovation. WP1 concentrates on mapping multilevel governance architectures across national, transnational, and cross-border contexts, capturing the complexities inherent in diverse institutional arrangements. This analytical foundation is crucial for understanding jurisdictional overlaps and coordination challenges that arise in crisis management scenarios affecting various territories.
WP2 specializes in dissecting the nuances of just twin transitions within regional innovation ecosystems. By examining social science perspectives and regional development strategies, this work package evaluates how policy interventions and grassroots initiatives contribute to equitable socio-technical transformations. WP3 shifts the focus towards energy systems, leveraging the EU Green Deal and the Digital Strategy frameworks to analyze digitalized energy infrastructures. This WP integrates technical evaluation with policy analysis to assess how new technologies can accelerate sustainability while managing social impacts.
The grassroots dimension is foregrounded in WP4, where community-driven social innovations are explored as dynamic responses to crises. Investigations here delve into participatory approaches, local sustainability experiments, and bottom-up initiatives that challenge conventional governance paradigms. Complementing this, WP5 synthesizes policy pathways and formulates recommendations aimed at making decision-making processes more inclusive, transparent, and responsive to societal needs during complex upheavals.
WP6 ensures that research outcomes achieve significant and enduring impact by deploying sophisticated communication, dissemination, and exploitation strategies. This includes engaging diverse stakeholders, facilitating knowledge exchange, and translating academic insights into actionable policy proposals. Overseeing all project activities, WP7 manages coordination, fostering collaboration across partners to seamlessly integrate diverse methodologies and ensure coherent progress toward DeCrises’ ambitious objectives.
The consortium assembling under the DeCrises umbrella is truly pan-European, comprising nine partners from over eight countries, each contributing specific expertise to the multifaceted research agenda. The University of Jyväskylä, as project coordinator, brings extensive knowledge in inclusive governance, democratic innovations, and policy design. Their leadership in WP5 ensures that the project’s policy recommendations are grounded in rigorous analysis and practical applicability.
Rīga Stradiņš University in Latvia leads WP1, capitalizing on their specialization in public policy and governance research with a distinct focus on multilevel and cross-border frameworks. Comenius University in Bratislava, spearheading WP2, offers deep insights into social sciences and regional development, particularly concerning equitable transitions and socio-technical systems in a regional context.
Energy systems and digital governance are the forte of LUT University in Finland, leading WP3, where they analyze the technical underpinnings of energy transitions through the lenses of sustainability and policy coherence informed by overarching European green and digital agendas. Vestlandsforsking in Norway, leading WP4, emphasizes participatory methodologies and localized sustainability solutions, fostering community engagement in forging innovative responses to crises.
The technical-scientific examination of energy technologies underpins contributions from the Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which equips the project with robust expertise in sustainability transitions from an engineering perspective. Citizen engagement and social innovation mechanisms are championed by Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania, focusing on socio-technical barriers and opportunities inherent to twin transitions.
Political science, governance, and legal perspectives responding to crises are integrated by Universität Greifswald in Germany, enriching the consortium’s interdisciplinary fabric with regulatory and institutional analyses. Finally, Pensoft Publishers provide indispensable expertise in open science communication and stakeholder engagement, propelling WP6’s efforts in dissemination and amplifying the impact of the project’s outputs through innovative science-policy interfacing.
The DeCrises initiative situates itself at the nexus of technical innovation, social justice, and governance reform, addressing the profound challenges posed by cascading crises to Europe’s society and environment. By bridging disciplines and mobilizing extensive transnational collaboration, it seeks to generate actionable knowledge that can inform policy-making and governance practices across scales. This ambition aligns closely with the European Union’s broader objectives to build resilient, inclusive futures where the benefits of advanced digitalisation and climate action are accessible to all citizens equitably.
As the project progresses, its findings are anticipated to influence how policymakers conceptualize and implement twin transition strategies, emphasizing adaptability and inclusiveness. In particular, the articulation of governance models responsive to multiple disruption layers can aid jurisdictions in anticipating, absorbing, and transforming crises into opportunities for sustainable development. This transformative approach could set a new benchmark for crisis governance in Europe and potentially across the globe.
DeCrises will also contribute significantly to academic discourse by integrating empirical data, theoretical frameworks, and practical policy evaluations across complex interrelated fields such as political science, innovation studies, energy technologies, and social innovation. The project’s interdisciplinary platforms will foster innovative methodological cross-pollination, enriching both scholarly understanding and practical application.
To ensure widespread accessibility and impact, DeCrises employs robust communication channels, including a dedicated LinkedIn page and Instagram presence, as well as an upcoming dedicated website. These platforms will provide regular updates and disseminate research outputs to a broad audience of scholars, practitioners, stakeholders, and the general public. This openness is key to promoting transparency and stimulating ongoing dialogue around governance challenges in the context of profound societal transitions.
By addressing the governance of twin transitions through a comprehensive, multi-actor, and multilevel lens, the DeCrises project stands to make a pivotal contribution to Europe’s capacity to navigate uncertain futures. The integrative knowledge produced promises to enhance resilience not only at institutional levels but also within communities and regions facing increasingly complex and intertwined crises. It is a model for collaborative research that combines technical sophistication with social consciousness, emblematic of Horizon Europe’s vision for transformative science.
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Subject of Research: Governance adaptation and inclusive policy development in the context of Europe’s twin digital and climate transitions amid complex socio-economic crises.
Article Title: DeCrises Project Launches to Tackle Governance Challenges of Europe’s Twin Transitions
News Publication Date: April 2025
Web References:
– University of Jyväskylä: https://www.jyu.fi/en
– Rīga Stradiņš University: https://www.rsu.lv/en
– Comenius University in Bratislava: https://uniba.sk/en/
– LUT University: https://www.lut.fi/en
– Vestlandsforsking: https://www.vestforsk.no/en
– Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery: https://www.imp.gda.pl/
– Kaunas University of Technology: https://en.ktu.edu/
– Universität Greifswald: https://www.uni-greifswald.de/en/
– Pensoft Publishers: https://pensoft.net/
Image Credits: Pensoft Publishers
Keywords: Technology policy, public policy, political science, government, social sciences
