Creating and testing an approach for upscaling climate services

Abstract

Upscaling is the process of moving beyond pilots or prototypes to repeatable and/or transferable services that are accessible and useful to stakeholders and users. It may also refer to increasing the provision, reach, or impact of an existing service. Upscaling any service or product is a complex process, which – in the case of climate services – is exacerbated by serving an emerging market, and many projects taking place in academic settings with short term funding cycles. Climate service providers, their delivery partners and funders could benefit from increased reach and impact by explicitly considering how their services can scale and what the enablers and barriers to this may be. This could take the form of reviewing academic literature, applying structured frameworks, or learning from best practice examples.

Here, we describe the process of creating, testing, and refining an upscaling approach for climate services. The resulting approach is presented, alongside case studies that helped update it and provide evidence for its usefulness and useability. This detailed study of upscaling climate services sets the foundation for effective and sustainable provision of climate services beyond pilots and prototypes and further development of upscaling frameworks and tools to this end.