How can we make water data management accessible, affordable, secure, fair, and easy to use? This autumn, a new EU-funded project saw the light, committed to do exactly that. WATERVERSE project, funded by European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, aims at developing a Water Data Management Ecosystem (WDME) for making data management practices and resources in the water sector accessible, affordable, secure, fair, and easy to use, improving the usability of data and the interoperability of data-intensive processes.
Digitalisation is a key enabler for the water sector, which can be leveraged to implement strategic policy commitments and directives at national, European and international levels. Data-intensive technologies are being adopted in the water sector but the actual use of data is hindered by strong data ownership approaches due to the perception that data sharing is a risk for confidentiality leakage, security aspects of critical infrastructures, unclear business models, poor quality of data, as well as the fragmentation and conservative attitude of the end-users.
The three-year project is now stepping in to blend together competencies from the water domain technology providers and innovation companies, as well as the technical community that is driving the development of data spaces, thus increasing the resilience of the water sector and water utilities, as a whole. The project will be demonstrated in 6 countries (Cyprus, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and the UK), establishing clear and measurable indicators to assess data equity in water-related data spaces and ensuring feasibility and the sustainability of the ecosystem, as well as its replicability, scalability and business applicability.
WATERVERSE brings great expertise on board, combining the skills of 17 partners from 10 European countries, including research organizations, water service companies, technology providers and innovation companies. Water Europe is among the consortium’s partners, leading the Communication and Dissemination activities. The kick-off meeting of the project was held on the 11th and 12th of October 2022, in Thessaloniki, Greece, hosted by the project’s coordinator CERTH.
Interested in the project’s developments? Follow its social media LinkedIn, Twitter.
