Patrick McGhee

This paper introduces the Games Realising Effective and Affective Transformation (GREAT) research and Innovation project. The project will examine the emerging ways Applied Games could be used to facilitate the social engagement of European citizens in determining future policy priorities and policy interventions to the existential challenge of climate change. This full paper is a provides detail of the work in progress but moreover provides a a conceptual analysis of the methodologies applied to this emerging domain of study. The project is funded by the EU Horizon programme with UK Associate partners funded through UKRI and coordinated by the DIPF, Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Frankfurt and involves seven partners located across Europe, Serious Games Interactive (SGI) Denmark, Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) Austria, International University of Rioja (UNIR) Spain, Frederick University, Cyprus, Playmob and The University of Bolton (UoB) as UK associate partners. The project incorporates collaborative design and citizen science methods and brings together researchers with expertise in the areas of games, data analytics, and policy development. This integrated investigation will be articulated by case studies of the use of games in facilitating dialogue between citizens and policy stakeholders including policy makers, policy implementers, political parties, campaigning organisations and affected citizens. This will be achieved by leveraging the central role of games in contemporary culture by combining academic studies with practical experimentation of novel applications of games. The context for the research is the global challenge of climate emergency, and each case study incorporates a research cycle addressing a policy issue and research questions, using multiple pilots to generate both quantitative and qualitative and data to further inform research activity.

In this paper the authors introduce the Games Realising Effective and Affective Transformation (GREAT) research project. This EU funded intervention posits the application of digital games, game making and games technologies, as a realisable sustainable solution to actively engage citizens in meaningful dialogue with governments to address the global challenge of climate change.
The primary objective of the intervention is to facilitate citizens by using emergent technologies, to provide input into developing national and international policy priorities to address the challenges presented by global climate change, technologies that are both available and accessible.
The GREAT project commenced on 01 February 2023 and brings together leading scientists in academia and the games industry in a single programme of research and innovation. The Project aims to establish new forms of social engagement and encourage meaningful dialogue between citizens and senior policy stakeholders (policy makers, policy implementers, political parties, and affected citizens).