CMCC Foundation (Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change) and Planetaria (content factory where art and science meet to talk about the great challenges of a changing world), in partnership with NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (Rome and Milan campuses), are launching Mediating Adaptation: CMCC-Planetaria-NABA project, a research and educational initiative exploring new ways to communicate climate knowledge. The project
will see NABA students develop innovative, art- and design-led campaigns that connect citizens and places with the concrete implications on society of scientific evidence about climate.
At the heart of the initiative is a clear objective: preserve the rigor of scientific research while broadening its resonance through creative strategies, design, and visual culture—making adaptation insights easier to understand, more relatable, and more actionable for a wide range of audiences. Students will work with scientific outputs and data from Adaptation AGORA, a Horizon Europe project coordinated by the CMCC Principal Scientist Paola Mercogliano
under the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change and translate them into compelling artefacts and campaigns that support awareness, participation, and sustained public engagement.
From data to public impact
Mediating Adaptation invites NABA students to develop audio/visual works, digital content, virtual installations, editorial and graphic products, posters and images that build bridges between research and society. The focus is the city of Rome and rising temperatures, a pressing issue affecting residents and visitors and placing additional stress on the city’s cultural heritage.
Students will be encouraged to choose a specific demographic—for example youth, parents, working women, or older adults—and decline the same scientific core into distinct communication strategies: different tones, formats, visuals and channels, each calibrated to how that audience understands risk, emotion, daily constraints and civic responsibility.
A portfolio of creative directions
Participants may build their project around one or more Adaptation AGORA products and pathways, including:
- Rome’s interactive climate monitoring system hosted on Dataclime, CMCC’s climate service platform translating complex indicators into usable journeys and interactive exploration;
- Engagement events and co-creation activities developed with communities and local authorities;
- Communication outputs—such as editorial re-design of dissemination deliverables, and reinvention of visual materials and videos;
- Digital tools, including the Adaptation AGORA mobile app, to strengthen adaptation literacy while countering misleading narratives.
A structured collaboration with scientists and storytellers
The project will be coordinated by Andrea Mattiello and launched during a town hall on Monday 9 March at 12:00, Room 2.08, NABA Rome campus, with CMCC scientists, the Planetaria team and NABA faculty (also accessible online via NABA’s platform). Students will receive guidance through dedicated sessions, a midterm critique with CMCC and Planetaria, and final presentations to a CMCC–Planetaria delegation.
CMCC Foundation, is a leading international, independent research centre advancing climate science and impact assessment to support sustainable growth and science-based adaptation and mitigation policies.
Planetaria is a content factory of global change: a place where science, art, and media transform the complexity of the great challenges of our time into compelling stories capable of illuminating the present and imagining possible futures.
NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, is an international academy of art and design with
campuses in Milan and Rome. Rome and from A.Y. 2026/27 also in London, selected by the
QS World University Rankings® by Subject Art & Design as the Best Academy of Fine Arts
in Italy and among the top 100 universities in the world.
