In a world increasingly affected by climate change, the CATER initiative identifies a critical shortcoming: existing climate services often lack societal engagement and are ill-suited to local realities and user needs. In response, CATER unites African and European academic communities with a clear mission – connecting climate science to actionable strategies.
CATER challenges conventional climate services approaches that typically position local communities as passive recipients, reserving expertise for international specialists. Our focus on transdisciplinarity fosters active participation from the outset, reshaping the traditional roles of climate information producers and users. This inclusive and socially engaged approach is essential for effective climate services in both Europe and Africa. By involving governments, organisations, and local communities, we aim to deepen understanding and practice of climate risk management.
The schools are the heart of CATER. They equip students, early-career researchers, and frontline practitioners with novel skills while promoting a culture of co-production and transdisciplinary thinking. Amplifying the voices of Global South communities—who bear the brunt of climate change—is central to creating adaptation strategies that are not only effective but also just. At a time when aid budgets are being cut in many countries, providing African students with opportunities for advanced training and international collaboration is more urgent than ever.
The second CATER school took place in Arusha, Tanzania, in October 2024, with 23 students and more than a dozen lecturers from across Africa and the world. Based on feedback from the first school in 2023, where the local context was not sufficiently interwoven into the curriculum, we engaged a locally based researcher as a lecturer in Arusha. A new feature was a dedicated field day, spent in a Maasai village, coordinated by one of the elders. This experience gave students direct insight into local adaptation challenges and strategies, deepening the connection between theory and practice. The rest of the programme offered lectures on climate risk management, prediction, justice, co-production of climate information, ethics in research, environmental policy, and professional development. Afternoons were devoted to group projects where students co-designed games and decision-making exercises around climate risk, building practical skills for collaboration. The Arusha school was a great success, demonstrating the value of bringing together participants from diverse disciplines and backgrounds.
Together with the first school in Kongoni, Kenya, the CATER alumni network now counts 55 members. This network has grown into a vibrant community of practice: alumni from both years meet online regularly to present new ideas, share their ongoing research, discuss career paths, and maintain the personal and professional ties formed during the schools. Networking, often highlighted by participants as a central benefit, is thus sustained and deepened long after the schools themselves.
To further support this community, CATER has introduced small student grants. Two 2023 alumni carried out fieldwork in Colombia, and six alumni jointly organised a workshop in Nairobi. In 2025, three 2024 alumni will conduct fieldwork and host a workshop in Tanzania with CATER support. These projects, which are presented on our website, extend the reach of the schools and illustrate how alumni are translating CATER’s ethos into independent, interdisciplinary initiatives.
The CATER staff also actively reflect on the educational process. A workshop in Grenoble in March 2025 brought together lecturers to plan the next school and to chart a course for research that builds on CATER experiences. One outcome is a paper now under review, which analyses the first two schools and explores how participants develop transdisciplinary perspectives in such learning environments.
Looking ahead, the third CATER school will be held in Madagascar in October–November 2025. Interest has been overwhelming: from around 250 applicants, 25 participants were selected. As in previous years, the cohort balances Africa and the rest of the world, gender, and disciplinary backgrounds across social and natural sciences. A strong presence of practitioners alongside academic students will further strengthen the bridge between research and practice.
We view CATER as more than a project; it is an emerging movement that transcends boundaries of geography, discipline, and profession. Through education, collaboration, alumni-led projects, and staff research, CATER is sowing the seeds for a more inclusive society in climate adaptation, bridging theory and practice and giving voice to those who live with the daily realities of climate risk.
CATER builds on existing collaborations in the CONFER Horizon 2020 project, in which we co-develop climate services for East Africa with regional stakeholders. Based on our experiences in CONFER and other initiatives, we have come to challenge the notion that climate services are a one-way delivery of data from a ‘producer’ to an ‘end user’. In reality, the uptake of climate information leading to climate action in any setting requires extensive and iterative two-way engagement across sectors and disciplines, which is usually referred to with a broad brush as ‘co-production’. Our unique consortium from Norway, South Africa and France will work with students, practitioners, businesses, and not least between ourselves (researchers and educators) to:
(1) Move science into action and vice versa by developing immersive annual schools focusing on climate action. This will be an arena where the students and lecturers will, together, engage with topics in the emerging intersection of climate research and practical climate adaptation, enhancing their capability to link climate research to real-world practice.
(2) Organise annual workshops reaching within and beyond our own communities. The overarching focus will be on cultivating a community of practice to enhance climate action and decision-making capacity, by planning and evolving the school programme, and developing joint research ideas, proposals, and papers.
(3) Promote and facilitate exchanges of people between our countries by providing seed money for further funding through applications to public exchange programmes.
We mean to take a world-leading position by nurturing a cohort of academics able to think beyond the confines of academia to clarify the science-society divide between research and practice in climate adaptation, and by making voices of the South louder and more confident in international settings.
