Introducing the Connectivity Hub: A new ‘search and discovery’ tool
By Sukaina Bharwani and Karen Brandon
SEI announces the creation of the Connectivity Hub, where the climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) communities can come together. The new high-tech tool aims to help people working in these two fields to find potential synergies, to better communicate with one another, and to learn about which organisations are working on what issues.
The Connectivity Hub is part of the PLAtform for Climate Adaptation and Risk Reduction (PLACARD) project, which aims to increase collaboration and coordiation, and to decrease fragmentation and redundancy between the climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) communities. SEI is a leader in the project, which is part of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.
The hub is designed to provide a highly visual, interactive and comprehensive overview of CCA and DRR offerings. A search through the hub can:
- generate a dynamic and interactive online visualisation of the landscape of relevant organisations and activities that connect CCA and DRR knowledge networks.
- create a cluster of information by sector, decision focus, geographical scope and risk ̶ with an emphasis on key messages and lessons learned.
- guide users to content that help users to find relevant evidence, expertise, tools and methods, and good practice insights, and to make contact with organisations and peers at work on related issues.
“The Connectivity Hub represents an exciting milestone because it’s an example that shows what technology now allows us to do that wasn’t possible, even a couple of years ago”, said Sukaina Bharwani, the SEI senior research fellow who leads the project. “The increasing ability to harness data and to repurpose it in innovative, visually powerful ways provides new avenues for learning from existing initiatives, and for accelerating the bridging of science to action.”
Give the Connectivity Hub a try, and do provide feedback! The hub is still evolving, with a newer version that incorporates more data from more resources expected in 2019.