Tomas Michel, President Editorial: September 2020
Dear Water Europe family,
Overcoming the COVID-19 challenges, we continue to work hard, adapting daily our operations and membership services to the new emerging normal. September has been a very busy month and a ‘hot autumn’ is certainly underway with all our preparations, upcoming events and new projects.
The news of the month is that the last call of Horizon2020 was officially published. With a funding of 1billion euros, the EU Green Deal Call is here to cover a variety of aspects and sectors, aiming to drive a rapid transition to a circular, green and clean industry: a growth engine that will not leave any industrial sector behind. The Call will be another tool for Europe recovery from the Covid-19 crisis and the development of strength, capacity and resilience. Water Europe has made an extensive analysis of the funding opportunities for water-related activities and we can positively say that water-related project proposals can be developed in 8 out of the 11 areas and 3 areas have potential to develop proposals for Water-Oriented Living Labs.
To give our members and network the opportunity to receive the latest information from the European Commission about the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call and pitch their project ideas, we are virtually hosting our EU Green Deal Call Brokerage event from the 12th to the 16th of October. Following the successful example of our Water Innovation Europe 2020 digital week, we are preparing a programme that combines a bit of everything: new insights and tailored information on the Call, networking opportunities through our B2B matchmaking sessions and of course, our Working Groups meetings that will take place in parallel with the event.
During our Brokerage event, we will also launch the first edition of our new event ‘Water Projects Europe’ that will take place on the 13th of October 2020. The event will be dedicated to the topic ‘Industrial Water Reuse’ and many Water Europe projects will be there to present their achievements and latest developments. Through this new event series, we aim to increase the visibility of running or recently closed projects, strengthening their collaboration with the EC and other stakeholders.
This month, we also had two new Horizon2020 projects kicking-off their activities, ULTIMATE and B-WaterSmart. We are glad to be part of such promising projects and strong consortia which have been funded under the SC5 call on ‘Building a water-smart economy and society’, a call inspired by our Water Europe Vision 2030: The Value of Water: Towards a Future proof model for a European water-smart society’. PathoCERT and Water Mining are two more projects that will initiate their work next weeks, and we cannot wait to meet our partners and start new collaborations.
Last week, we also had the pleasure to welcome on board our new member, Microsoft. As part of its commitment to become water positive by 2030, Microsoft joined us to promote smart water solutions and advance policy efforts in Europe. We are looking forward to working together, raising the voice on the value of water and building a Water Smart Society.
Next month, our Water Europe Board of Directors will meet for the first time in its new composition. An important item on the agenda will be the elections of the 4 WE Vice-Presidents and their portfolios.
I look forward to meeting you all online on the 12th of October at our WE EU Green Deal Brokerage Event. Until now and then, stay safe, stay connected and join us digitally.
