Project co-ordinator, research academic on the trans-disciplinary, direct democracy Real Deal Project, which is part of the EU’s Green Deal Project.

I organised four Real Deal focus group projects on sustainable food systems and agriculture in Dublin, in person an online and subsequently wrote a report on the findings from the groups. I also conducted in-depth research/analyses of seven Real Deal focus groups in Ireland and Austria also discussing farm to fork. I worked www.feasta.org and the Global Climate Forum https://globalclimateforum.org in Berlin. I delivered my analyses on my findings to the Global Climate Forum in Berlin in December 2023. This will be used as part of a wider pan European study, which will be

About Real Deal:

This trans-disciplinary project brings together researchers of deliberative democracy from a wide range of disciplines, including political science, law, sociology, and psychology. The researchers are collaborating with the EU´s largest civil society networks and NGOs to reach millions of citizens and thousands of policymakers. REAL DEAL is currently developing, and will test and validate innovative tools and formats to propel deliberative democracy to the next level. It will test its innovations in deliberative processes for a green and just transition in around 13 countries. It will also examine pan-European formats ranging from digital deliberation processes to in-person formats such as an Assembly for a Gender-Just Green Deal and a pan-European Youth Climate Assembly.

REAL DEAL will co-create a comprehensive protocol for meaningful citizens´ participation and deliberation to work towards the objectives of the European Green Deal. It will develop recommendations on how to design such processes and their application in various contexts by European institutions, Member States, and civil society alike. The project's participants will develop a new hybrid model of political inclusion that will be analytic (including post-normal, transdisciplinary science); strategic (including dedicated stakeholders for environmental and sustainable transformations); deliberative (including citizens from all countries in all their diversity and uniqueness); and socially compatible with legal, ethical and international standards (including civil rights, gender equality, national political culture, impacts for non-European nations and generations to come).

The topics addressed by this project throughout its duration will reflect the political agenda and policy priorities of the EU as well as the core concerns of citizens. The following policy and transformation areas are likely to be covered:

• Just transitions and root causes of inequality across the EU

• Sustainable food systems and agriculture

• Energy transitions and climate action

• Sustainable mobility

• Sustainable consumption and production (including the circular economy, chemicals, waste)

www.realdeal.eu for more information