ERRIN-WssTP Info day on public funding opportunities for water-related SMEs

On Friday 24th of January, WssTP and ERRIN had the pleasure of welcoming more than 200 participants at the Infoday, organised to shed lights on the public opportunities for SMEs active in the Water Sector and EcoInnovation.  The event was also co-organised through the FinnoWater Action Group of the EIP on Water.

A range of speakers and experts from the European Investment Bank, European Commission, Eurostars, ACQUEAU, COSME, Business Angels and Crowdfunding were present to demonstrate opportunities for SMEs of more than 11,3 Billion Euros.

The event was a great opportunitiy for all SMEs and Project Managers to understand how to make use of available funding instruments and develop partnerships.

WssTP and ERRIN would like thank the Embassy of Netherlands in Belgium that kindly hosted our Infoday and the other sponsors that made the event possible.

WssTP will continue to explore public and private funding opportunities for the water sector in the interest of its members.

For any further enquries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us by mail.

WssTP Working Groups Workshop & Joint WssTP-ERRIN Brokerage event, 22nd November 2013!

WssTP Working Groups Workshop & Joint WssTP-ERRIN Brokerage event took place in the Lombardy Region Delegation office in Brussels, on Friday 22^nd of November between 11.00 and 17.30pm. The event was held, one day after the first EIP Water Annual Conference and had a strong turnout of over 100 attendees, coming from both WssTP’s and ERRIN’s network.

WssTP Working Groups’ Workshop

The Working Groups session was the first joint meeting of all the 16 WssTP working groups after the transition of WssTP from its former pilot structure to the new WG structure.

During the session, all the WssTP WGs leaders briefly  presented  their objectives and activities , enabling members and potential members to learn about them and enter into a discussion, so that they find out whether their activities are relevant to them.

Joint WssTP-ERRIN Brokerage Event

WssTP and ERRIN jointly organised a H2020 Brokerage event that was devoted to the water-related calls in the 2014-2015 work programme for Horizon2020 that will be formally launched on 11th of December.

Panos Balabanis from the DG RTD, Grazyna Wojcieszko from DG Connect and  Robert Schroeder from the DG ENV introduced their perspective on the calls, followed by presentations of members’ ideas and a brokerage session. All participants of the brokerage event were also provided by WssTP with an overview of the relevant calls for the water sector.

 Media Corner

First Coordination Meeting on WssTP Working Groups’ Leaders

On the 8^th of October, the first Coordination meeting of the WssTP WG leaders was held in Brussels. Issues on the agenda were amongst others the strategy for the coming year, exchange and coordination of activities and the preparation for the upcoming H2020 calls. The leaders achieved to have a very constructive discussion, whose outcomes are very useful so as to shape and prepare the Working  Groups’ session of WssTP workshop that will take place on 22^nd of November in Brussels.

Meeting of WssTP WG ‘Water & Industry’ with the EIP AG ‘Industrial Water reuse and Recycling’

The first combined meeting of WssTP WG on ‘Water and Industry’ after the summer holidays was held with success on 7th of October in Brussels. The meeting was well attended with 22 participants present.

Among the topics discussed were the water Calls for industry and WssTP’s water reuse report, while in the same context it was highlighted the cooperation of the new member ‘World business council on Sustainable Development’ with IWA on Water Reuse. WssTP also expressed its anticipation for a new legislation on water reuse from the European Commission.

In addition, the meeting decided to merge the WssTP WG ‘Water & SPIRE’ into the WG ‘Water and Industry’ as a sub-group. A detailed action plan of the WG was also set up for the next two years with regular meetings every 3 months.

The next meeting of the WG ‘Water & Industry’ is scheduled for the 10th of December.

More information, please contact Albert Jansen

WssTP’s Workshop Ecosystems Services

The WssTP Working Group on Ecosystem Services met on 26th of September in Brussels. This was a first meeting to identify the competences of each participant of the Group, which would then determine the topics on which the Group will focus at this stage.

The meeting was also a very good opportunity to decide to work on collaborative EU projects and to liaise with SMEs so that technology transfers can occur.

More information, please contact Gaëtane Suzenet