No abstract

This guide presents a joint effort of projects funded under the European Research Area for Climate Services (ERA4CS) (http://www.jpi-climate.eu/ERA4CS), a co- funded action initiated by JPI Climate with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462), 15 national public Research Funding Organisations (RFOs), and 30 Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) from 18 European countries. This guide sets out to increase the understanding of different pathways, methods, and approaches to improve knowledge co-production of climate services with users as a value-added activity of the ERA4CS Programme. Reflecting on the experiences of 16 of the 26 projects funded under ERA4CS, this guide aims to define and recommend good practices for transdisciplinary knowledge co-production of climate services to researchers, users, funding agencies, and private sector service providers. Drawing on responses from ERA4CS project teams to a questionnaire and interviews, this guide maps the diversity of methods for stakeholder identification, involvement, and engagement. It also conducts an analysis of methods, tools, and mechanisms for engagement as well as evaluation of co-production processes. This guide presents and discusses good practice examples based on the review of the ERA4CS projects, identifying enablers and barriers for key elements in climate service co-production processes. These were: namely (i) Forms of Engagement; (ii) Entry Points for Engagement; and, (iii) Intensity of Involvement. It further outlines key ingredients to enhance the quality of co-producing climate services with users and stakeholders. Based on the analysis of the lessons learned from ERA4CS projects, as well as a review of key concepts in the recent literature on climate service co-production, we provide a set of recommendations for researchers, users, funders and private sector providers of climate services.

<p> </p><p>Climate change increasingly affects all parts of society. Different economic sectors such as the agricultural sector have to adapt to climate change. More and more climate services are being developed in order to support this adaptation to climate change with accurate and suitable products. Good practises for the design of climate services include transdisciplinary approaches and co-creation of climate service products. The development of usable and useful climate service products and effective adaptation measures requires constant interactions between climate service providers and users of the products. To assess the effectiveness of these co-creation endeavours, continuous evaluation is crucial. At present, output and outcome assessments are conducted occasionally in this research field. However, these <em>summative</em> evaluations that are preformed ex-post do not help to adjust the ongoing process of co-creation. Therefore, the focus of the presented work is on <em>formative</em> evaluation of the co-creative development of science-based climate service products. A <em>formative</em> evaluation is done during the run-time of a project with the intention to reflect and readjust it. For this purpose, we analysed in detail the process of co-creation of climate service products in the knowledge transfer project ADAPTER (ADAPT tERrestrial systems, https://adapter-projekt.org/) and combine this analysis with a systematic literature review. In ADAPTER, simulation-based climate service products are developed together with key partners and practitioners from the agricultural sector, with the aim of supporting decision making in the context of climate change adaptation.</p><p>As a first step, main characteristics of the product development process were identified empirically and six sub-processes of product development were determined. Secondly , questions for a <em>formative</em> evaluation were assigned to the different steps and sub-processes. Thirdly, a literature review including fields other than climate services delivered additional qualitative aspects. As a result, a scheme of quality criteria and related assessment questions for the different sub-processes in climate service development was created, based on both empirical and theoretical work. Subsequently, this scheme needs validation and testing. The resulting <em>formative</em> evaluation scheme will be particularly helpful to reflect on and to improve the co-creation processes in climate services and beyond.</p><p> </p>

<p>National and international climate services support adaptation to climate change. Climate services should aim to deliver climate service products, which are useable, useful, accurate and suitable for users. Good practices for the design of climate services include transdisciplinary approaches and co-creation of climate service products.</p><p>The advancement of effective adaptation measures to climate change requires continuous interactions between climate service providers and users of the products. To assess the effectiveness of this co-creation endeavours evaluation is crucial. At present, output and outcome assessments are conducted occasionally in the climate services research field but they are performed ex-post and do not help to adjust the ongoing process of co-creation.</p><p>Thus, the focus of the presented work is on the <em>formative</em> evaluation of the co-creative development of science-based climate service products. It is done during the run-time of a project with the intention to reflect and readjust the processes. To find the related evaluation criteria, we analysed in detail the process of co-creation of climate service products in the knowledge transfer project ADAPTER (ADAPT tERrestrial systems, https://adapter-projekt.org/). In ADAPTER, simulation-based climate service products have been developed together with key partners and practitioners from the agricultural sector, to support decision-making in the context of climate change adaptation.</p><p>Starting with the empirical identification of the main characteristics of the product development process, six sub-processes were determined. Then, questions for a <em>formative</em> evaluation were assigned to the different steps and sub-processes. Finally, a literature review on quality criteria in transdisciplinary research delivered additional qualitative aspects and served as theoretical basis. As a result, a scheme of quality criteria and related assessment questions for the different sub-processes in climate service development was created, based on both empirical and theoretical work. Of course, this formative evaluation scheme needs validation and testing but, at least, will be particularly helpful to reflect on and to improve the co-creation processes in climate services and enhance their quality.</p>