Department of Business Development and Technology

UPTAKE aims to facilitate the sustainable upscaling of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods by developing a set of robust strategies through technical, theoretical, and practical analysis accompanied by interactive dialogue within a CDR stakeholder forum. As a result, UPTAKE will develop a harmonised, comprehensive, inclusive, integrated, and transparent CDR knowledge inventory to evaluate a wide range of CDR technologies and methods, quantifying their national, European, and global costs, effectiveness, and removal potential as well as risks, constraints, and side-effects at different scales, and their prospects of technological progress. The UPTAKE approach will allow the assessment of geographical, sectoral, socioeconomic, demographic, and temporal trade-offs, co-benefits, and opportunities emerging from portfolios of different CDR methods. The enhanced socio-technical understanding of CDR methods will feed into an ensemble of state-of-the-art integrated assessment models (IAMs), which will help improve the integration of CDR methods given the EU policy objectives set for 2030, 2050, and beyond climate neutrality. UPTAKE will assess CDR governance and policy frameworks considering social acceptance, accountability, monitoring, and regulations for sustainable CDR rollout at scale. As a result, UPTAKE will generate an open and interactive CDR roadmap explorer to investigate strategies that are resilient to risks of failure and disruption, and minimise adverse impacts on society, economy, and the environment, aiming for a just, inclusive, and sustainable transition.

The UPTAKE consortium is coordinated by Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo Sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC) and brings together 21 partners with well-established and world-leading expertise in CDR technology assessment, integrated assessment modelling, SSH methods, and climate policy and governance issues.

UPTAKE is a Horizon Europe funded project.Description

The path to climate neutrality needs to explicitly consider the roles of solar geoengineering and negative emissions technologies. A meta-analytical framework where social science, engineering, and physical science disciplines merge is necessary for a comprehensive mapping of this transition. The EU-funded GENIE project will explore the environmental, technical, social, legal, ethical and policy dimensions of greenhouse gas removal and solar radiation management. GENIE aims to produce a comprehensive scientific assessment for evidence-based policymaking to address climate change, and to expand our toolkit for a zero-emissions future.

Geoengineering technologies, such as solar radiation management (SRM), and negative emissions technologies, such as greenhouse gas removal (GGR), are emerging options to address climate change. This project will investigate the environmental, technical, social, legal, and policy dimensions of GGR and SRM. We provide an urgently needed interdisciplinary and holistic perspective of these technologies in order to understand conditions under which they might be deployed at scale. Our meta-analytical framework integrates insights from social science, engineering and physical science disciplines to provide a comprehensive view of GGR and SRM in the transition to climate neutrality in Europe and the world. The project will conduct excellent research and generate a robust, scientific assessment for evidence-based policymaking. Our research framework consists of three pillars—techno-economic systems, socio-technical systems, and systems of political action—within which we place six work packages (WPs). These are: (1) Understanding the current state and future potential of GGR and SRM technologies in terms of their technical and economic features; (2) Analysing bottlenecks in transitions to climate neutrality and their implications for deployment; (3) Identifying social acceptance and legitimacy constraints, (4) Learning, diffusion, and adoption; (5) Implications for Sustainable Development Goals of archetypical mitigation pathways; and 6) Policy options and governance. A crosscutting WP7 synthesizes research along three salient, but under-researched themes: A) Socio-technical change; B) Managing transition risks; and C) Political economy and feasibility of deployment. WP8 focuses on stakeholder engagement, entailing scenario co-design, science-policy dialogue formats, and specific outreach formats for target groups.Description

The state of the environment and the economy require altering the way we approach business transactions (cf. the UN Sustainable Development Goals). Innovative sustainable interventions addressing social inequality and environmental degradation are required to create employment opportunities for sustainable growth. The aim of the Co-LIFE project is to produce innovative educational measures in impact-focused entrepreneurship (IFE) in four (4) Indian HEIs. This will produce positive social, economic and environmental results through knowledge-sharing. Through economic collaboration between HEIs, companies and associations, e. g. via social and sustainable entrepreneurship activities the Co-LIFE project will create change in communities, in the short-term. Project partner institutions in Europe and India have come together to co-develop educational content (course curriculum), learning materials, and novel innovative pedagogics to advance IFE-based education in India. India needs sustainable interventions to address and exploit their demographics and their entrepreneurial growth and vibrant ecosystem. The goal is to prepare students of Indian HEIs to tackle regionally relevant social and sustainable challenges through an entrepreneurial approach, and to improve the innovativeness and relevance of higher education in relation to UN and Erasmus+ CBHE goals. This educational collaboration between Indian and EU-based HEIs involves creating stakeholder networks in India and between India and the EU. The proposal involves non-academic organisations and stakeholders bringing innovative added-value for social inclusion. Additionally, enhancing intercultural relations between the EU and India: participating HEIs, students, teaching staff, and local businesses and associations is an objective. HEIs and networks will benefit from exchanging best practices in learning and teaching methods and practical ideas towards employment and sustainable development in their respective areas.Description

The CyPro project aims to strengthen the cybersecurity level of the Danish business sector in relation to the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0. The significance of IoT security as a strategic and commercial asset is accelerating in the digital age and has become more relevant to remain competitive than ever.

New knowledge, skills and concrete tools developed in the project will be made available to help Danish industrial companies to understand and utilise cybersecurity as a growth driver in production.

The project is funded by the Danish Industry Foundation, and the partner consortium consists of the Alexandra Institute, FORCE Technology, Ugla Insights, DAMRC and Aarhus University (DBD). Description

The ELEVATE project aims to create a robust scientific understanding of the impact of current climate policies and identifying opportunities to mitigate GHG emissions further towards net-zero by mid-century. The consortium includes the leading global modelling teams responsible for informing the IPCC assessments, the most critical national teams in informing national policymakers worldwide (also covering high emitting, (middle) low-income countries), and world-leading social science and humanities experts regarding climate policy and system transformation. The ELEVATE project will set up a dialogue between the consortium members (actors involved in national and international climate research) and policymakers to jointly evaluate current progress and contribute to new or updated climate policies and NDCs. ELEVATE will strengthen the capacity to develop linked global and national scenarios that are updated regularly and use this to provide a comprehensive analysis of implemented policies and different routes towards the Paris climate goals.Description