Socio-economic Empowerment of coastal communities as users of the sea to ensure sustainable coastal development

EmpowerUs will enable coastal communities to act for change and transition towards sustainable, inclusive and resilient coastal developments. We assume that true empowerment implies R&I should catalyze, facilitate and support coastal communities in the acquisition of power through a variety of tools, methods and coproduction with the inclusion of all actors, at local, regional, national and European levels.

EmpowerUs will develop an adaptive transformation mechanism via on a network of six Transition Coastal Labs (TCLs) across all EU coastal regions. Recognising that no one solution will address the myriad of challenges coastal communities face, the EmpowerUs transformation mechanism will be adaptive and based on a multi-actor transdisciplinary approach.

The project will co-create, pilot and evaluate Tailored Empowerment Programmes that include a portfolio of social innovation and Nature-Based Solutions. By facilitating capacity building through improved understanding of challenges, barriers and enablers of change and increasing Ocean Literacy through nature connectedness and cultural heritage, EmpowerUs will support social innovation and self-sustaining communities. The EmpowerCoast digital twin/digital GIS platform will ensure the EmpowerUs mechanism is available to all coastal communities to uptake and use to support sustainable action.

EmpowerUs consortium is balanced, complementary and transdisciplinary with key expertise in socio- economic technical, and ecological issues and the science-policy needed to achieve the project’s aims and objectives. EmpowerUs will provide innovative platforms to empower citizens to take transformative actions in line with EU policies to meet global challenges including biodiversity degradation and climate change at a local scale, supporting just, inclusive and sustainable coastal development.