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On 28 January 2026, the Shared Green Societies Forum was officially launched at the Town Hall in Brussels, bringing together civil society actors, researchers, policymakers and local practitioners from across Europe to strengthen links between practice, research and policy for a socially just, inclusive and citizen-driven green transition for the EU.
Shared Green Societies is a new European forum designed to bridge gaps between evidence, on-the-ground practice and policymaking, while supporting community-led initiatives aligned with the ambitions of the European Green Deal. Its added value lies in connecting Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research with community practice. On the one hand, the Forum creates a space where NGOs and local actors can access findings, tools and insights from SSH research to better support their communities. On the other hand, it facilitates constructive dialogue between researchers and those with lived, on-the-ground experience, fostering mutual learning and co-creation.
More information about the Forum and the various participation opportunities is available here: https://sharedgreendeal.eu/shared-green-societies
The event opened with a keynote conversation by Astrid Ladefoged, Deputy to the Director and Head of the Green Transitions Unit at DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission. Ms Ladefoged emphasised how essential social experiments, community engagement and interdisciplinary approaches are in linking technological and policy opportunities with fairness concerns, especially under the mounting pressure to act on climate and societal challenges.
A central part of the launch was the session “Celebrating local ‘Champions’ in Shared Green Societies”, which adopted an interview format to highlight inspiring experiences from NGOs and Municipalities that implemented social experiments and supported local efforts to advance European Green Deal objectives. Haris Paliogiannis contributed to this discussion, drawing on MIO-ECSDE’s role in coordinating the biodiversity related experiments. Reflecting on the experiences shared, he emphasised that local biodiversity transitions are not merely technical challenges, but deeply social, cultural and relational processes, underlying that “effective enabling conditions arise when research and policy work together to cultivate trust, learning, local ownership and long-term engagement, allowing change to grow from within communities rather than being imposed from the outside.”
The event also featured an interactive Collaboration Hub, a marketplace where projects aligned with the Shared Green Societies mission were presented. Among them, MIO-ECSDE showcased YouthCare4Change, a youth-centred initiative that closely aligns with the Forum’s objectives on inclusive engagement, capacity building and community-driven action for socially just futures.
We warmly thank all participants who contributed to an inspiring launch. We look forward to the next steps of the Shared Green Societies journey and to continued collaboration towards fair and sustainable transitions across not only Europe, but also the Mediterranean.
Watch the recording of the launch event in the links below:
- Introduction and Keynote Conversation – Shared Green Societies Forum Launch
- Celebrating local ‘Champions’ in Shared Green Societies
