News

LNEC is coordinating the recently awarded Horizon Europe project: "JUST-COAST – Justice-Driven Integrated Transformation for Climate-Resilient Coastal Futures: Co-Creating Just, Systemic, and Inclusive Solutions for Transformative Adaptation in Vulnerable Coastal Hotspots".

Selected from 25 highly competitive consortia, this 48-month Innovation Action, with a total budget of €11.5 million, is a major step forward for Europe's most climate-vulnerable coastal hotspots.

Coastal climate adaptation demands a systemic, place - and people-centred response - well beyond engineering alone. Our 29-partner consortium from 14 countries brings together critical infrastructure operators, SMEs, research institutions, local authorities, and civil society organisations, ensuring our solutions are scientifically robust, economically viable, and socially just. 

As project coordinator, LNEC is bringing decades of expertise in coastal engineering and hydrodynamic modelling directly to the core of the project:

- Digital Forecasting: LNEC is leading the development of integrated coastal monitoring systems and predictive digital tools, combining satellite and drone-based remote sensing with in-situ observations, and coupling advanced hydrodynamic and wave models with AI-supported Early Warning Systems - delivering calibrated, site-specific forecasts.

- Physical Modelling: LNEC and ARTELIA will leverage their facilities to physically model and stress-test Nature-Based Solutions - dynamic cobble berms, vegetated buffers, and seagrass meadows - under storm and climate change conditions (e.g., sea-level rise, changes in wave regime), before field deployment.

This expertise is assured by a multidisciplinary team, including members from several LNEC's Units.

At the end, there will be a demonstration of the pathways to transformative adaptation across 7 coastal hotspots - Aveiro (PT), Southern Falster (DK), Burgas (BG), Danube Delta (RO), Venice (IT), Guadeloupe (FR), and Revithoussa/Megara Gulf (EL) - and replicate them across 7 additional sites, from the Azores to Malta, Mersin, and Liverpool, integrating with ongoing EU initiatives and leveraging Copernicus Marine Services and the Coastal Thematic Hub.

LNEC’s partners in this project are: CODATA | NCSR "DEMOKRITOS" | Artelia | IANUS Technologies | Porto de Aveiro | cambiaMO | University of Cambridge | CORILA | Syddansk Universitet | University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest | Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development | Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski | Burgas Municipality | Universidade de Aveiro | Technovative Solutions LTD (TVS) | Kafademi Social Sciences | Mersin Büyükşehir Belediyesi | Portos dos Açores, S.A. | UKRI-STFC | EIP – European Integrated Projects | Grand Port Maritime de la Guadeloupe | Mazotos Community Council | DESFA | adelphi | Environment and Water Agency | Institutia Prefectului Judetul Tulcea | City of Venice