KNI Secures Major EU Grant to Launch MSc in Climate Adaptation and Systemic Risk

The Kingsman National Institute is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a major multi-year research and development grant from Horizon Europe, the European Union’s key funding programme for research and innovation. This substantial grant will fund the creation of a new, deeply interdisciplinary research cluster and a flagship postgraduate programme: the MSc in “Climate Adaptation, Policy, and Systemic Risk.”

This initiative is a direct response to a critical, and often overlooked, gap in higher education. Whilst many institutions rightly focus on climate mitigation—the vital work of reducing carbon emissions—this new programme will confront the more immediate and complex consequences that are already “locked in.”

The MSc will address climate change not as a future environmental problem, but as a present-day economic, legal, and engineering crisis. The programme is designed to analyse the cascading failures and systemic risks associated with climate disruption, from infrastructure stability and supply chain collapse to financial market shocks and mass human displacement.

The grant was awarded precisely because of KNI’s unique “Athenian Synthesis” model. The programme will be co-administered by three of our leading research centres, forcing a mandatory collaboration that breaks down traditional academic silos:

1. The Hellenic Centre for Sustainable Engineering (HCSE): Led by Professor Kaarina Rantanen, the engineering faculty will provide the programme’s “hard science” foundation. This includes advanced computational modelling of physical risks (sea-level rise, extreme heat, and water scarcity in the Mediterranean) and the design principles for resilient, adaptive infrastructure that can withstand new environmental stresses.
2. The Kolonaki Forum for Economic Policy (KFEP): Drawing on the expertise of Dr. Eleni Zografos and her colleagues, this faculty will model the second- and third-order economic consequences. Students will analyse the systemic risk to global trade, insurance markets, and public finance. They will be tasked with quantifying the enormous costs of inaction versus the strategic investment required for adaptation.
3. The Aegean & Eastern Mediterranean Strategic Studies Unit (AEMSS): Directed by Dr. Tomáš Petříček, this unit will provide the critical human and legal framework. This stream will confront the most difficult questions: What is the legal status of a “climate refugee” under international law? How will nations manage resource conflicts over water and arable land? What are the new security and governance challenges presented by large-scale population movements?

This is not designed to be an easy or comfortable synthesis. Dr. Petříček, the programme’s incoming co-chair, commented on the intellectual friction that the EU grant actively encourages.

“This programme is a frank acknowledgement that the old, siloed approach to climate study is no longer sufficient. It is not a natural fit. The engineers modelling fluid dynamics, the economists quantifying risk, and the international lawyers debating legal precedent do not, as a rule, speak the same professional language,” Dr. Petříček noted.

“That is precisely the point of the grant and the new MSc. We are forcing these essential fields into a mandatory, and at times imperfect, dialogue. The challenge is no longer just scientific; it is a fundamental problem of social and economic architecture. KNI, sitting at the crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean, has a responsibility to train the leaders who can navigate this new reality.”

The programme, which will welcome its first cohort next year, is designed for a new generation of hybrid professionals—graduates who can be “trilingual,” speaking the languages of engineering, economics, and law with equal fluency. It will prepare them for senior roles in government, international finance (like the World Bank or ECB), the global re-insurance industry, and strategic infrastructure planning.

This initiative places the Kingsman National Institute at the forefront of one of the 21st century’s most defining and complex challenges, reinforcing our commitment to rigorous, applied scholarship that serves the public good.