Welcome to the new Water Europe Cluster Co-leaders

The new year brings in new faces at Water Europe. We are excited to welcome on board four excellent water professionals as co-leaders of our Water Europe Clusters.

WE Cluster ‘The Value in Water’

Francesco Fatone is Full Professor of Chemical-Environmental Engineering at Polytechnic University of Marche (Ancona – Italy).

Besides being coordinator or leader in several EU-funded projects, chair of international conferences and general secretary of the IWA Resource Recovery Cluster, author and editor in water-related international ISI journals, Francesco is active in the science-policy-business interface, as national advisor for the application of EU circular economy package and member of the ECOMONDO executive board.

WE Cluster ‘Smart Water Treatment’

Olga Ferrer works in ACCIONA Agua R&D department, as Desalination and New Technologies Area Manager.

She undertook chemical and industrial engineering as well as her PhD studies in the Polytechnical Catalan University (UPC, Spain) and an MSc in Cranfield University (United Kingdom). She has been working in R&D and engineering in the water sector for more than 10 years.

WE Cluster ‘Water Smart Rural Areas’

Antonio Lo Porto is researcher at the Italian Water Research Institute (IRSA-CNR), in the field of Integrated Water Resources Management and irrigation management and acts as International Liaison Officer in the EU, China, India and USA.

He is the Past President of Euraqua and is  member of the Advisory Board of the Water JPI (Chair) and of the FACCE JPI. He leads of the focus area “Water Resources Management under Climate Change” in the China-EU Water Platform.

WE Cluster ‘Digital Water’

Rita Maria Ugarelli is Chief Scientist at SINTEF Community and adjunct professor at the Norwegian technical university in Norway.

She holds a PhD in Civil engineering with a focus on urban water infrastructure asset management. She is currently coordinator of the H2020 STOP-IT project and core team member of the H2020 Digital Water City and of the B-WaterSmart projects. She covers the role of secretariat of the Aqua Research Collaboration since 2016.

New Water Test Network challenge online

Are you an SME who has innovative technologies to detect and/or remove pharmaceuticals from wastewater? Are you willing to demonstrate this in a full scale municipal wastewater treatment plant with the fully funded support (with a value to up to €50.000) of the project?

The Water Test Network is looking for SMEs that can detect and/or remove pharmaceuticals from wastewater. You will be in a position to showcase your innovative technology in a real test environment. This can either be a municipal wastewater treatment plant or the untreated wastewater of a hospital.

The innovation must result in cost-effective and efficient pharmaceutical detection and/or removal. Applications from removal technologies, as well as innovative analytical methods, technologies or tools are very much welcomed.

Interested SMEs can apply by submitting an application form no later than 1 February 2020 at 12 pm.

For more information about the project and the application process, please click here.

Circular economy – New EU action plan open for feedback 

Until the 20th of January 2020, the European Commission will receive feedback from citizens and stakeholders about the new Circular Economy Action Plan. Aiming to accelerate the European transition towards a circular economy, the action plan is a response to the commitments of the European Green Deal.

The goal of the new action plan is to strengthen the EU industry, help fight climate change and preserve the European natural environment.

By analysing the life-cycle of products and materials, the new action plan aims at ensuring that resources are used sustainably. It will also address more resource-intensive sectors, such as the textile, construction, electronics, and plastics industries.

Moving away from a linear economy will help decrease harmful impacts on the environment, such as climate change and loss of biodiversity.

You can read more about the new Circular Economy Action Plan as well as give your feedback until the 20th of January.

Smart Water Survey released – Take a moment to fill it in!

Digital disruption has already transformed several industry sectors worldwide and is now changing the traditional paradigm of water utilities. Yet, water utilities are embracing the digital transformation with heterogeneous strategies and priorities, business plans, and technologies.

Understanding the patterns of digital transformation across time, space, and water utility sectors is key to characterize its development, current impact, and future plans.

An international team led by the Smart Water Networks group at the Technische Universität Berlin and Einstein Center Digital Future released the “Smart Water Survey”, an online questionnaire targeted to water utilities worldwide.

The Smart Water Survey is a research project that investigates the point of view of utilities to understand how the water utility paradigm is changing in the era of digital disruption.

If you work for a water utility, please take a moment to fill out the Smart Water Survey. Completing our survey will take about 15 minutes.

The results will be then made available to you in the form of a report with a global assessment of the digital transformation of the water utility sector. The Smart Water Survey will remain open until the end of February 2020.

Working Group Workshop on Water Security

The Working Group on ‘Water Security’ is organising a workshop on the 29th of January 2020, at the KWR Water Research Centre in Nieuwegein, Netherlands.

The workshop will start with a plenary programme with invited keynote speakers, addressing the importance of Water Security, development of assessment methods, and the importance of Water Governance Framework. Finally, policy implications will be discussed.

Among the keynote speakers are Veronica Manfredi, Director Quality of Life, DG-Env, EC, Gonzalo Delacamara, Water Europe Cluster leader ‘Value of Water’, IMDEA, Alexandros Makarigakis, Programme Specialist Water for Human Settlements, UNESCO, Oriana Romano, Coordinator – Cities and Circular Economy Programme, OECD and Kees van Leeuwen, Chief Science Officer, KWR Water Research Institute.

The plenary session will be finished by a moderated panel discussion.

The programme will be hosted by Jan Hofman (University of Bath and KWR) and Blanca Antizar (Isle Utilities), co-leaders of the Working Group ‘Water Security’.

To check the detailed workshop’s programme, please click here. To secure your place, REGISTER HERE

The European environment — state and outlook 2020 now published

Besides the considerable progress, Europe continues to face serious environmental challenges. This is the conclusion reached in the new Environment Report 2020 from the European Environment Agency (EEA).

The report says that Europe will not achieve its 2030 goals without urgent action during the next 10 years to address the alarming rate of biodiversity loss, increasing impacts of climate change and the overconsumption of natural resources.

Concerning water, while the report reiterates the principle that securing water and its sustainable use remains a key challenge globally and within Europe, also states that Europe’s waters are significantly affected by diffuse pollution, hydromorphological changes and water abstraction.

Action is needed

The report specifies that improved implementation and increased coherence between EU water-related policy objectives and measures are needed to improve water quality and quantity as well as it will become increasingly critical to address and monitor the climate‑water-ecosystem-agriculture nexus and connection with energy needs.

The report suggests that it is at a river basin scale that effective solutions for water management can be found and essential knowledge is being developed through the implementation of river basin management plans under the Water Framework Directive, which perfectly fits with the Water Europe Vision and the Living Labs approach for achieving a Water Smart Society.

The coming decade will, therefore, be of decisive importance in determining Europe’s opportunities in the 21st century.

Water Market Europe 2020 open for registration

Water Market Europe 2020 is coming up with another exciting edition to address the burning issue of ‘Digital and cybersecurity solutions for utilities and industries’ on the 18th of March at the BluePoint Conference Centre in Brussels.

The water sector needs new digital solutions for a resilient and secure water smart society. With the digitalization of the water systems, there are solutions to address water emerging challenges but there are also cybersecurity threats that industries and utilities need to face. What is the way forward?

WME2020 is made for matchmaking between the demand and the offer of efficient digital and cybersecurity solutions for the water sector.

  Secure your place to explore all the new digital water solutions and seize the business opportunities opened up!

Why should you join WME2020?

1. Get specialised insights on the current water market scenario
2. Benefit from exclusive information on the investment opportunities
3. Explore the best solutions to the current water management challenges
4. Create new business opportunities through the B2B meetings

What is Water Market Europe

Water Market Europe is the event cycle that Water Europe has set up to create a unique innovation and business environment, where state of the art water knowledge and research results can meet with market actors within and outside the water sector to create value and new business opportunities.

Water Market Europe’s main edition is hosted in spring every year, but smaller editions of WME are being organized during the whole year, back to back to other conferences, trade fairs and conventions. 

Click here to learn more about the event and register as an early bird.

WE President editorial December 2019

Dear Water Europe family,

While we are running the last weeks of 2019 and before welcoming the new year, we would like to spare a moment and warmly thank you for being part of the Water Europe family over 2019. What we think as the best and maybe more practical way to show our gratitude is by providing you with the tangible results of what it means to be part of Water Europe. 2019 has been an intense and exciting year for us with activities on all fronts.

Three successful annual events with over 500 participants were held, more than 600 matchmaking sessions took place, three new publications saw the light and many more actions were made that may not be measurable in numbers but still count a great deal. Chief among them in 2019 was our name change. It has been already six months after the adoption of our new name, which more accurately reflects our evolution and our vision for the future. ‘Water Europe’ has been fondly embraced by the EU water sector not only as a stronger brand but also for what it brings along: A broader, more inclusive platform that represents the full water value chain and paves the way for the full transition to a Water-Smart society.

To implement our Water Vision and achieve a Water-Smart Society, the Water Oriented Living Labs are a key tool and thus, earlier this year, we did an analysis of all the existing living labs across Europe that resulted in our new publication the ‘Atlas of the EU WoLLS’ which serves as the first-ever mapping and categorisation of European WoLLs. In parallel with this and in line with our unceasing commitment to bring the water topic at the heart of the EU’s attention, we jointly developed with the UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) the publication ‘Water in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: How can Europe Act’ that advocates for the role that the European Union, the European Commission and the European Water Sector actors should continue to have, to contribute to achieving the 2030 Agenda, in particular to SDG 6 and other water-related targets.

Achieving a Water-Smart Society and raising the water topic on the EU agenda are key pillars of our strategy but not the only ones. Providing excellent services to our members remains at the centre of our everyday operation. We want our members to get results and we are happy to see that our efforts and work successfully deliver them. According to our publication ‘Analyses & Overview of WE members’ European Projects’, 179 water-related projects have been funded under H2020 and thus far Water Europe’s membership covers 74% of all participants to these projects.

We have many reasons to be proud of but nothing of all these would have been possible, without your enthusiast participation and input, the real fuel of our success. Therefore, the final applause goes to you for one more year. We eagerly anticipate and look forward working with you and for you again in 2020.

Water is everyone’s business – Explanatory factsheet

The latest WWF‘s flagship publication, reports the current situation of water supply and water sanitation in Europe by evaluating the holistic approach of the EU Water Framework Directive towards Europe’s water resources. Under this Directive, the EU Members States are legally committed to maintain and return 100% of their water bodies, including groundwater, to good health by 2027 at the latest.

But what is exactly the WFD? What are the initial objectives? How can the WFD’s deliver its full potential? 

To find out more about the WWF’s latest publication “Water is everyone’s business” and the WFD, please click HERE

Mülheim Water Award 2020 open for application

The Mülheim Water Award 2020 award is looking for practice-oriented research and development projects as well as the implementation of innovative concepts for secure drinking water supply and water analysis. The subject of submission for 2020: Innovations for a sustainable, safe and secure drinking water supply.

Application is a two-stage process, and the submission deadline for the first stage is 29 Feb 2020.

For more details about the award, the submission and the selection procedure, please visit the Muelheim website just by clicking HERE