Study Protocol for the research-oriented part of ClimateBlue

This study protocol describes the research-oriented activities conducted within ClimateBlue Subgoal 3 and selected research-related activities connected to Subgoal 5. It does not describe the full ClimateBlue project. Its purpose is to provide a transparent methodological and Open Science framework for the citizen science part, organisational baselines, literature review, media analysis, participatory data collection, and dialogue-based Future Lab activities that generate research-relevant knowledge. The protocol is aligned with the ClimateBlue application, which describes the project as “Co-creating climate adaptation in coastal zones” (ClimateBlue Consortium, 2025). It states that the project aims to provide “insights, knowledge, and build social capital” (ClimateBlue Consortium, 2025) for long-term coastal adaptation strategies. The application further explains that the project seeks to “institutionalize focused interactions between society, science, and policy” (ClimateBlue Consortium, 2025). Within this protocol, these formulations are used only to frame the research tasks in Subgoals 3 and 5 as a structured contribution to citizen-centred knowledge co-production. The study design follows four interconnected pillars. Pillar 1 establishes organisational baselines for the Danish and German cases. Pillar 2 reviews scientific literature on citizen science and coastal adaptation; Pillar 3 analyses written media coverage of the October 2023 storm surge. Pillar 4 collects and analyses citizen experiences, tacit knowledge, risk perceptions, and local adaptation strategies. These pillars support research outputs such as the scientific literature review, media analysis, citizen science dataset, Playbook for Coastal Future Dialogue, Citizen Science Report and case-based Future Lab insights and strategies for local climate adaptation in coastal zones. The methodological orientation follows principles of transdisciplinary knowledge co-production and dialogical citizen engagement, while recognising the multiple knowledge systems relevant in the project (including local, managerial, political and scientific knowledge). Data procedures, FAIR/Open Science principles, storage, anonymisation, and governance responsibilities are described in the ClimateBlue Data Management Plan (Priess-Buchheit et al., 2026), following the principle “as open as possible, as closed as necessary.”