Finding Common Ground: Building Shared Evidence for Transformative Mountain Adaptation through Co-Creation, from Theoretical Concepts to Practical Implementation.

This contribution presents the MountResilience Impact Assessment Framework (MoRIA), a transparent and structured methodology designed to assess transformative climate change adaptation in European mountain regions. Developed within the EU Horizon project MountResilience, the framework provides a rigorous yet practical approach that links actions, delivery, and intended change. Grounded in a Social-Technical-Ecological Systems perspective, MoRIA combines a compact index construction strategy with narrative interpretation, allowing evidence to be weighed rather than simplified. This balanced design establishes a shared language for partners working across diverse geographies, governance systems, and disciplines. 

MoRIA organises indicators across four Domains (Environmental, Societal, Economic, and Governance & Politics) and four Types (Baseline, Structure, Process, and Outcome), clarifying what constitutes progress towards adaptation. It highlights that enduring results depend not only on technical interventions but also on enabling conditions such as institutional capacity, effective participation, and knowledge infrastructures. These structural elements are understood as core outcomes in themselves rather than secondary inputs. 

The evidence base is built on institutional and technical records that ensure continuity beyond the project lifetime, complemented by two survey waves to capture public priorities and acceptance, and concise narrative accounts for complex dynamics and data-poor contexts. By aligning quantitative and qualitative evidence, MoRIA fosters responsible comparison, policy learning, and transdisciplinary collaboration. 

Early findings indicate that persistent challenges are more institutional than technical: even well-designed measures struggle without clear mandates, reliable data flows, and established cooperation routines. Within a consortium of 47 partners, co-creation emerges as both a strength and a challenge. Communicating impact across disciplinary and sectoral boundaries requires constant negotiation of methods, meanings, and expectations. At the same time, regional diversity becomes a creative asset that enriches design and interpretation. MoRIA explicitly acknowledges these tensions, treating the iterative process of co-creation not as an obstacle but as a driver of adaptive learning and innovation.