Rethinking Co-creation of Digital and Environmental Policy in Systems of Multilevel Governance (RECODE MLG) is a proposal for Horizon Europe on Multilevel governance in times of Digital and Climate Transitions. The RECODE overarching goal is to promote a just, inclusive and democratic transition to a sustainable and digital future by showing how this ‘twin transition’ can be governed effectively within the EU multilevel governance (MLG) system. The project investigates co-creation as a process that can precisely achieve this objective, by proactively involving multiple actors – including policymakers, stakeholders, citizens and volunteers – in a collaborative endeavour, to identify both problems and solutions related to the twin transition. RECODE MLG brings together leading experts on MLG, sustainability politics, digitalisation, co-creation, democratic theory and deliberative innovation with civil society, industry stakeholders and policymaking representatives. It assesses governance structures at three critical sites of twin transition and designs and implements four co-creation labs in order to advance state-of-the-art and produce policy recommendations and a practical ‘tool-kit’ to support inclusive policymaking on twin transition in MLG
The overarching goal of RECODE MLG is to promote a just, inclusive and democratic twin transition, by advancing actionable knowledge of co-creation to help policymakers at all levels develop and implement effective, legitimate and better informed policy within the MLG system of the EU. By bringing together the very latest research on these two concepts, and experimenting with co-creation labs, our project will construct a conceptual model of MLG-co-creation that goes beyond the state-of-the-art and which will provide a practical co-creation manual along with specific and scientifically tested policy recommendations and a documentary film to guide the participation of citizens and stakeholders to move towards climate neutral digitalized societies.
RECODE MLG will achieve its overarching goal by means of three specific objectives:
A. ASSESSMENT of the MLG of the twin transition by examining six cases at critical sites to generate scientific and practical insights;
B. INNOVATION of scientific models and practice of co-creation through four ‘co-creation labs’ to identify pathways and challenges for MLG co-creation;
C. GENERATION of a set of policy recommendations, a practical co-creation manual and a documentary film, (translated into relevant languages) to support legitimate and effective governance of a just, inclusive and democratic twin transition.
