Since March 2025, Pathways2Resilience (P2R) has brought regions together to learn not only from experts, but from each other. Over three Innovation Practice Groups (IPGs) weeks, held in March, June, and October 2025, the programme hosted 27 online sessions exploring what climate resilience looks like on the ground.
With a new round of IPGs sessions taking place this week (19–23 October 2026), now is a good moment to look back at the exchanges, experiences, plans and ideas shared during the 2025 editions.
A space designed for exchange
The Innovation Practice Groups were designed as exactly that: a space for peer learning and practical exchange.
Open to regional and local government staff, local coalitions, and practitioners working across climate adaptation, community engagement, and civil society, each IPGs Week offers a series of focused sessions built around real-world case studies from regions and communities. Rather than lectures, the sessions centre on interactive discussion among peers, experts, and practitioners from within and beyond the P2R network. Ten critical resilience themes have anchored the programme throughout:
- governance and engagement
- finance and resources
- knowledge and data
- critical infrastructure
- health and well-being
- water management
- land use and food systems
- ecosystems and nature-based solutions
- local economic systems
- behavioural change
Three editions, one common purpose
Across the three online IPGs weeks held in March, June and October 2025, the programme recorded a total of 879 participants across 27 sessions. Bringing together regions and communities, the sessions enabled participants to share experiences, present local approaches and discuss common climate resilience challenges. By combining regional case studies and practical examples with interactive discussion, participants could learn from approaches developed in different contexts, reflect on their relevance to their own regions, and exchange ideas, emerging plans, and innovative solutions with peers. Expert contributions complemented these regional perspectives, adding relevant knowledge and insights to the discussions.
What regions took from it
For the regions themselves, the value has lain less in any single session than in the accumulated exchange. By sharing perspectives and discussing experiences across different contexts, participants had opportunities to discover new ideas and reflect on how different approaches to resilience-related challenges might inform their own work.
As the team from Saue, Estonia, put it when reflecting on their PURCHADE project:
“We found the Innovation Practice Groups to be useful, particularly as a space for the exchange of perspectives and the discussion of interesting and forward-looking ideas. They contributed to a broader understanding of how different regions and actors approach resilience-related challenges and opportunities, which was valuable from both a strategic and a practical perspective.”
— Saue, Estonia (PURCHADE)
The practical value came through just as clearly from Ithaki, Greece, where the SMILE project team found the sessions:
“Extremely helpful for stakeholder engagement activities, exercises for mapping needs and vulnerabilities of the islands, visioning strategies.”
— Ithaki, Greece (SMILE)
Why it matters
The stakes behind these sessions are not abstract. According to the European Committee of the Regions, 90% of climate adaptation initiatives are carried out at local and regional level. This underlines the importance of the IPGs as a space where regions can share practical experience and learn from one another, supporting those working on the front line of climate resilience.
The conversation continues
After a first year of IPGs Weeks, regional experiences remain at the heart of the IPGs format, the themes have stayed anchored in what matters most to Pathways2Resilience, and participating regions have found real value in learning from one another. The programme will continue to create opportunities for regions to share experiences, explore common challenges and learn from peers, with expert contributions offering additional perspectives and knowledge.
We look forward to listening, learning, and connecting with regions, stakeholders, climate adaptation practitioners, and partners through the IPGs Weeks still to come over the rest of the project.
Want to learn more about the IPGs? Visit our events IPGs page to see the upcoming programme and register to join us for the upcoming sessions.
