Learning from Experience: Reflections on the Delivery of Nature-Based Solutions as Part of a Multi-Partner Collaborative Project

The delivery of the EU Horizon 2020 funded project URBAN GreenUP required 27 institutions in 8 countries to work collaboratively to design, develop, deliver, and evaluate a portfolio of small-scale Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) interventions. The 6-year project focussed on understanding the role that NBS could play in future-proofing cities against climate, demographic, and economic change. Throughout its lifespan the project engaged extensively with public, private and community stakeholders to identify areas of need, and match them with innovative urban solutions. This chapter focusses on the Liverpool (UK) component of the URBAN GreenUP project reflecting on the challenges and solutions witnessed to deliver NBS. We discuss how the complexity of local government, the planning and development structures in Liverpool, as well as those issues related to land ownerships and project focus, led to difficult choices being made regarding how best to integrate nature into urban areas. Moreover, we focus on a range of tensions between stakeholders at the local and the overarching project scale related to the delivery of innovation addressing issues of climate change, health and well-being and economic enhancement. Consequently, we identify the following areas: effective governance and communication between partners, flexibility in the approach to design and delivery, complementarity between the skills and experiences of project partners, and a willingness to challenges decisions as essential criteria for the successful delivery of a multi-partner and multi-location NBS projects. The chapter concludes with a reflection on how we select, focus, deliver, and monitor NBS investments as part of large consortium project to provide insights into how to meet strategic and local objectives.