On 3 – 4 February 2021, a Kick-off Meeting of the project ‘Multilevel Local, Nation- and Regionwide Education and Training in Climate Services, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation – ClimEd’ was organized on Zoom platform by the University of Helsinki, the project grant coordinator.

The first day was dedicated to getting to know each other better and an insight into the project particulars. The event started with welcome addresses by Svyatoslav Tyuryakov, University of Helsinki, Oleh Sharov, General Director of the Directorate of Professional Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and Svitlana Shytikova, Coordinator of the National Erasmus+ Office in Ukraine.

The following partners delivered presentations on their role in ClimEd: University of Helsinki (Finland), University of Rovira i Virgili (Spain), Estonian University of Life Sciences, Odessa State Environmental University, Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University, Odessa National Medical University, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.

On the 2nd day, issues on collaboration and communication within ClimEd, Erasmus+, management principles and rules, and a workplan for 2021 were discussed.

In addition, presentations by candidates for associated partnership in ClimEd were considered: Uman National University of Horticulture, Institute of Ecology of the Carpathians of NASU, Karazin Institute of Environmental Sciences of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Mykolaiv National Agrarian University, Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University and the Faculty of Geography of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.