Ihobe, the Basque Government's Public Environmental Management Company, together with agencies from Germany, Austria, Denmark, Scotland, Slovakia, France, Finland, the Netherlands, England, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Switzerland, took part in the “Interest Group on Sustainability Research and Solutions”, which was created to increase the effectiveness of the so-called "Knowledge4Policy", linking research and science with political practice.

Supported by the European Environment Agency, this working group aims to provide a platform for exchanging and learning about viable projects and knowledge contribution activities, share research strategies at a European level, support the European Environment Agency’s transdisciplinary research collaborations that deal with sustainability-related scientific issues, and establish an institutional network to facilitate strategic and operational collaboration with common objectives in the short, medium and long term, aimed at agreeing on European R&D&I priorities and even creating sustainability-related collaborative projects.

The group came about after a session entitled “Systemic approaches to sustainability transitions”, in which Ihobe took part as part of “European Research and Innovation Days 2021”, an initiative aimed at making the relationship between the creation of applicable knowledge and its effective use in the real world of business, citizenship and politics compatible.

This working group will provide valuable support when it comes to effectively and efficiently deploying the 17 transformative initiatives on Knowledge for Policy in the Basque Country that the Basque Science, Technology and Innovation Plan (PCTI 2030 by its Spanish acronym) is currently defining in the areas of climate adaptation, soil protection and integrated water management.