During the 2025 Sustainability Research & Innovation Congress (SRI2025), NexusNet members facilitated an interactive session entitled “Strengthening Local Communities for Regional Resilience Regarding Nexus Implications of Extreme Events.” This online interactive session, conducted on Monday, June 16^th, convened a diverse group of experts, policymakers, innovators, and representatives from civil society to examine strategies for empowering local communities to effectively mitigate and adapt to extreme climate events through Nexus-based methodologies.

Professor Chrysi Laspidou, Chair of the NexusNet COST Action and Vice-Rector at the University of Thessaly, and Assistant Professor Giannis Adamos of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Grant Holder Manager of NexusNet, together with Pia Laborgne, Barbara Willaarts, Alexandra Spyropoulou, Tamara Rađenović, Serena Caucci, Georgia Tseva, Dimitrios Kofinas, and Argyrios Balatsoukas, presented a comprehensive and multidisciplinary analysis of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus framework. They emphasized how integrating this framework with social innovation and collaborative decision-making can foster inclusive, adaptive resilience—particularly urgent in light of the increasing frequency and severity of climate-related disasters such as floods, wildfires, heatwaves, and landslides. Their combined expertise reinforced the session’s collaborative spirit and underscored the strength of the NexusNet network in addressing complex sustainability challenges.

Interactive Co-Creation for Real-World Solutions

The session comprised two targeted presentations. The first presentation introduced the Nexus framework and showcased practical applications derived from the NexusNet Case Study Inventory, thereby providing a basis for participant engagement. The second presentation explored the significance of social innovation in fostering community resilience, underscoring the critical role of local knowledge and inclusive governance in tackling complex systemic challenges.

Participants were organized into small breakout groups, with each group assigned the responsibility of analyzing one of the case studies and collaboratively addressing the following questions:

• How can the presented community-driven nexus solutions be further developed to mitigate the impacts of extreme events?
• How can partnerships between local communities, authorities and innovators co-create practical response plans?
• What Nexus-related opportunities can communities use to build resilience, prepare for and respond to extreme events?

Each group subsequently presented their findings during a plenary discussion, highlighting transferable strategies and challenges associated with the application of these approaches in various contexts.

NexusNet Commitment to Systemic, Inclusive Resilience

The session exemplified NexusNet’s fundamental mission: to promote holistic, socially informed, and collaborative strategies for sustainable development. By emphasizing the involvement of local communities in the co-creation of solutions, the event underscored the potential of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus framework to address real-world challenges in a manner that is adaptive, equitable, and practical.

Program