Working Groups

The scope of the working group is to make health an important element in EU water related policies and boost the R&I methodology to contribute to the achievement of a Water Smart Society in which the value of water is recognized and protected as a precious resource for human health and well-being.

The WG will analyse and provide clear advice to the water value chain on selected areas of interest that are in need for further policy and R&I coordination and support. The WG will coordinate and cooperate with the Water Europe collaboration matrix (WGs and VLTs) with the aim to prioritise the areas of interest for the entire membership and strategic stakeholders of Water Europe.

The working group was initiated to collaborate mainly on bathing water quality and share best and innovative practices in this field. It also aims to review research initiatives and demonstration projects targeting the implementation of the European Bathing Water Directive for coastal and inland water bodies located in the urban context. One key action is to take part in the revision process of bathing water directive.

In line with the WE Cluster structure, the working group contributes to the WE vision implementation on the following key components:

2, S2: “Technologies for safeguarding surface and drinking water from pollution”
6, S3: “Enhanced sharing knowledge and best practices in water”

During the last years, the groups has exchange on different topics (eg. Inventory of contamination sources relevant to bathing water quality, early warning of short-term pollution events, control measures and indicators).  Its members also participate in external and informal expert meetings for the revision of bathing water directive.

Expected deliverables

Write recommendations for revision of bathing water directive (2006/7/EC), Key comp. 6, S3 “Enhanced sharing knowledge and best practices in water”

Market review of online monitoring solutions, Key comp. 2, S2 “Technologies for safeguarding surface and drinking water from pollution”

Propose forecasting Tool for bathing water quality, Key 2, S2 and Key 6, S3

The scope of this working group focuses on good practices and innovative solutions to improve sustainable exploitation and stewardship of water sources by involving the water sector, the food industry (e.g. processing), and the agricultural sector in finding synergies that boost cooperation and exchange of knowledge between these relevant sectors.
Likewise, the WG seeks to pave the way for the implementation of appropriate solutions by improving the framework conditions (e.g. better regulations, funding, water quality and quantity, social and economic aspects, etc.)
The specific objectives for the current period are:

SO1: Increase interaction and exchange of knowledge between members

SO2: Enhance cooperation among members in R&D&i projects and commercial & business projects

SO3: Creation of scientific contents: a database will be created containing scientific publications, public reports, legislations, etc.

SO4: Identification of problems/needs of the agri-food sector in the water field. This will include the development of a survey on water-related problems/needs/peculiarities specifically focused on agri-food. Based on the results of this survey we may define priorities for further work.

SO5: Dissemination of WG activities to promote visibility of “water in agri-food”.

The last years, the working group has taken part in the successful launch of the Ling Lab L2O which aims to explore strategies for increasing business opportunities in the field of waste water reuse. The scope is to enable a fruitful market exploitation of water innovation through the creation of outreach business cases. It also participated in the activation of 5 demonstration sites to foster the business development, offering key result to contribute to the WE definition of Living Labs. These results had been exchanged in a meeting with EU officials.

Expected deliverables

Create an Online database of information sources in water and Agrifood

Set a catalogue of WG members activities: R&D and commercial

Report on priorities for further work on water related to agri-food sector

Preparation and submission of R&D proposal(s)

The working group was created to promote the implementation of renewable energy desalination by overcoming technical and non-technical barriers, expanding niches and exploiting nexus (eg. Agriculture, industry and smart cities).
It aims to encourage advanced water treatment solution to mobilize new sources of water in a sustainable way, decentralized green infrastructure that secures long-term water resilience and sustainability, increases water availability and quality, and reduces the impact on natural water resources.
The specific objectives for the current period are:

Develop seed consortia to work on project proposals on specific themes

Advance on R&D topics

Dissemination of results, ongoing activities and technologies

Analyze economic barriers of renewable energy desalination as a first step to propose cost frameworks towards new economic models for sustainable and resilient water supply

Assess the application of renewable energy desalination in (agricultural intensive) basin management.

The last years, the working groups defined themes to create seed consortia in order to work on pre-proposals. The working group meetings were also the occasion to present proposals to EU calls, PRIMA, INTERREG Atlantic programme and VINNOVA.

Expected deliverables

Scientific publication on the reduction of energy consumption of decentralized desalination

Analysis of economic barriers for Renewable Energy Desalination

Organization of a specific session on Renewable Energy Desalination in International Conference of the EDS

Activities in Sweden to raise awareness in the water industry

Engaging agricultural stakeholders and basin management bodies for the application of RE-Desalination

Created to develop collaboration on a key topic for water management, the green infrastructure working group aims to facilitate joint research and innovation activities through linking national projects and collaborating in international consortia. It’s also a for a to discuss the different classes and variations of green infrastructure and their effects on water quantity and quality and on human health and ecology. The exchange of information between the whole water cycle stakeholders on using or implementing natural and man-made green infrastructure systems constitute a key element of this Working groups in order to provide input n national and European research and innovation programmes.

The objectives are as follows:

To give the opportunity to members of the WG to present their concepts, researches and projects to other members.
To make consortia related to Green-infrastructures calls in the regional and EU level.
To provide input to Grey-Green infrastructure cluster

Expected deliverables

Four fact-sheet on Green infrastructure

Monitoring the current state of knowledge with regard to urban water pollution, this working group aims to identify knowledge gaps, opportunities and R&D needs. The development of recommendations to the European Commission in the context of current and future policies and water related directives is also a key activity.

The members of this group contribute to the creation of a water smart society in line with the WE vision by:

Reducing the impact of European society on our natural water resources by 50%.
Delivering the true value of water for our society, the economy and the environment.
Boosting the European water market as well as the global competitiveness of European water industries.
Securing society’s long-term resilience, stability, sustainability and security with regard to water.

Expected deliverable

Write an evaluation document, with input from various stakeholders in member states on the UWWTD

The Water & ICT aims to accelerate, lead and materialize the adoption of state-of-the-art digital technologies as the key enabling factor for innovation across the Water Value Chain. Digital technologies are expected to play a central role in addressing the complexity around water supply and sanitation. A truly inter-operable, intelligent and data-centric digital ecosystem will provide the framework for a water-driven sustainable growth.
The objectives of this working group are:

Gain and sustain a leading role in the implementation of the Water & ICT European strategy and action plans.
Build, share and foster a joint vision on Water & ICT across all the WG members.
Foster collaboration among WG members to benefit from a collective approach in coming EC-funded calls.
To visualize the relevance of the Water Value Chain as a highly relevant scenario for evaluating and demonstrating Digital technologies.
To collaborate with external organizations (AIOTI) / WG that can complement the Water & ICT WG activities.

Expected deliverables

Working on EU calls

Develop the collaboration with AIOTI

Develop a roadmap and action plan for the working group

This working group focuses on the CECs (contaminants of emerging Concern) in multiple waters in the environment and also on supporting enabling multiple purposes and uses. In few words, the working group will collaborate on the sources, screen and monitoring, the toxicity and the bid data and the modulization of CECs in the whole water cycle. The second scope offers some options to exchange on waste water treatment, drinking water treatment and prevention.

Expected deliverables

Update of national list of projects on emerging compounds.

Identify and list the priorities for the working groups for the next EU R&D programme.

Prepare fact-sheets on the priorities for HorizonEurope in line with the working group.

The main objective is to facilitate connections with international water agendas, with special emphasis on agenda 2030 and the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Other specific objectives are also in line with the scope of the working groups:

Linking EU Water Sector with the SDG Agenda especially concerning research, innovation and capacity development
Support WE Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) on KC6 challenges (Horizontal Activities) related with international cooperation, especially innovative solutions and business models to achieve SDGs

The WG contributes to KC6 especially on sub-challenge 5 (International Cooperation): “Support identification and implementation of highly transformative water innovations in support of the SDGs through policy support, innovation capacity and active/effective partnerships.”

During the last years, the working groups participated in different initiatives with linkages to international cooperation between EU and beyond. A clear goal was the project for EU-India call on February 2018. A representative participated in different events and meeting such as the GSTIC conference and the world water forum.

Expected deliverables

Finalise the already started publication with title: “The Role of the EU Water Sector for the Achievement of the water-related SDGs in terms of Science, Technology and Innovation”

Response to and participation in relevant projects, consultation processes and events. The focus will be participation in the RTD consultation (e.g. related to a Water Mission in “Horizon Europe”), in DEVCO consultations (boost Water in DEVCO agendas), participation in GSTIC conference and other ad-hoc events, joint formulation of proposals in the remaining part of H2020 programme.

We seek ways to overcome trade-offs between conflicting objectives of resource management and enhance synergies across the water and the Nexus sectors of food, energy and ecosystems. The WG identifies innovations, including improved governance tools, using the Nexus concept. It aims to enhance the value of water through coherence with other nexus sectors too.

The objectives of the group for the next year are:

Strengthen the (European) Nexus Project Cluster, an initiative to team up for increased and more impacting communication and dissemination of the Nexus. The water dimension of the Nexus is made explicit during science-policy discussion in Brussels.
A policy brief on the Nexus concept is released to improve good governance at different scales (e.g. regional, national, European and transboundary levels). Our focus is at resource efficiency, a circular and low carbon economy in Europe, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals.
Short-list of advanced technological and social innovations to create synergies between water and the Nexus sectors. This action will address the nexus concept to search for effective combinations of technologies and business models to better understand the value of water.

During the last years the nexus community started the inventory of nexus projects, with a focus to identify the vision towards the nexus of water-energy-food-ecosystems.

Expected deliverables

State of the art overview of nexus research actions.

Organise a science-policy workshop.

Write a nexus policy brief.

Develop an overview of water innovations from nexus projects and their potential benefits.

Ecosystem services (ESS) are the benefits society obtains from natural and constructed ecosystems. Those benefits, seen from a water perspective, are the focus of the Ecosystem Services working group. The group will focus on benefits as regulating services, provisioning services and wellbeing. Hence, the scope of the Ecosystem services WG contributes to the WE vision of a hybrid grey and green water infrastructure, to, e.g., strengthen society’s resilience against climate change events, especially droughts and floods.

The objectives of the WG ESS are:

To improve the understanding of Ecosystem Services

To influence EU policy and calls for proposals

To facilitate joint initiatives in the field of Ecosystem Services

Last years the members of the WG met EU project Dessin to underline how ESS, Nature-Based Solutions and Hybrid Grey-Green Infrastructure best practices, approaches and methodologies can contribute to innovation in the water sector and help tackle water-related challenges, such as water quality and water scarcity. They also participated in the Water Exploratory Workshop in Dublin to debate on how to improve ecosystem sustainability and human well-being. The working groups worked also on different EU calls.

Water is the most used solvent on earth. Nutriments, metals, minerals & salts, energy, proteins and lipids can be recovered from (waste) water. Therefore, the new paradigm is moving away from removing compounds to recovering resources: redesigning current technologies (towards optimal product recovery) and the development of dedicated technological concepts (towards higher market readiness levels). Consequently, this working group focuses on this new paradigm and contributes directly to the exchange on the value in water.

The objective of the WG RR are:

Identify, better understand, define and update the SIRA challenges related to technologies, incentives and business models for the Value in Water.

Define actions to foster and accelerate the process to bring research and innovations from the SIRA to market.

Provide recommendations for structuring and selecting real-life multi-stakeholder living lab environments (including outside of Europe) in which research and innovation results, including technologies, incentives and business models for the Value in Water, can be validated and migration paths to the future water-smart society experimented.

Provide input for and support the promotion of the WE Vision and its benefits towards EU and national policy makers, as well as towards the general public.

Expected deliverable

Meeting with DG RTD on questionnaire urban circular bio-economy.

The Water & Energy WG interests encompass all matters related to energy across the whole water cycle and water value chain. These include:  

1. energy generation (hydropower or from waste water sludge);  
2. energy use by water systems (water supply and distribution-e.g. pump scheduling, wastewater systems, irrigation networks, industrial systems);  
3. smart water and energy  (for sensors, at household level and as part of the smart city); 
4. the water-energy Nexus for policy and decision making. 

In particular, the WG intends to identify and point out gaps and future trends in research and innovation (e.g. in the domain of energy optimisation, which is a main priority), aligning and contributing to the work of the Water Europe cluster groups. 

Expected deliverables

White paper to be submitted to the WE secretariat at the end of Year 1

WG Water Distribution Infrastructure aims at addressing the fundamental societal need of sustained access to high quality water in Europe through fostering, driving and executing innovation and R&D with respect to new business models, service concepts, technologies and operating processes. This will be done along the whole value chain from design via construction, management to maintenance.

Target groups for the WG Water Distribution Infrastructure are owners, operators and managers of the systems, i.e. water utilities and utility service providers (public and private) and building owners, property managers and maintenance service providers.

From a systems perspective the scope coverage is from source to tap in the distribution, while from a management perspective it is about asset management and development, intelligence in network management and business model innovation for ensuring sustainable service levels and customer centricity.

Some of the key challenges identified so far are:

• Securing sufficient investment into ageing infrastructure

• Enabling proactive and predictive management and maintenance of networks

• Water quality issues (microbes, chemicals, micro-plastics and salt)

• Increasing the rate of digitalization and intelligence in water distribution infrastructure

These challenges will be addressed whilst taken into consideration key policy directives and initiatives like e.g. the European Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan.

On a high level, the stepping-stones of the activities of the WG are the business challenges and the policy frameworks and directives. Together, they provide the boundary conditions and scoping as well as help in defining more detailed activity roadmap. The near term activities of the WG will be to do a stakeholder survey with utilities and draft a position white paper.

 

 

Expected deliverables

 Under review

The scope of the working group is to make industrial water consumption sustainable on the very long term for the most important industrial water users and polluters (chemistry, food, textile, paper, mining, etc..). We do this by proposing new concepts for water reuse within unit operation site industries, neighbour industries, agriculture, urban and natural sources.

The new concepts will be tested in EU project together with the best available technologies. Innovations and improvements. This all together with optimized water management protocols. Industrial water standards are often even higher than drinking water standards. This together with unique qualities of sources and requirement means that water treatment cost is reasonable high compared to other water users. The working group has the ambition to lower industrial Water (reuse) treatment cost by modularization and standardization of water.

 

Expected deliverables

Mission driven paper Paper “Worth of water”

The working group will focus on: 

 

1. Screening of initiatives of quantification metrics and developing a quantifiable performance index for water security
2. Integrated water resource management, including concept for diversifying water supply sources and closing the water cycle
3. Integrated water quality management and Water Safety Plans
4. Integration of protection against water related hazards in the design of water systems
5. Exporting water security expertise to developing countries

The water security theme is at the heart of the Water Europe Vision and SIRA on creating a future-proof water smart society that includes four concepts: the Multiple Water concept, the Digital Water concept, the Value-in-Water concept, and the underpinning concept of creating Hybrid Grey-Green Infrastructures. However, water security goes beyond water supply and sanitation, by integrating the concepts with protection of life and property. This directly relates to the fourth concept of the WE Vision/SIRA, by giving the extra dimension of including hazard control and (climate) resilience to the hybrid Green-Grey infrastructures and their embedding in the water systems.

 

Expected deliverables

White paper on Water Security

THE WG aims at (i) understanding the current and future impact of climate and climate change on European water availability and management, (ii) sustainable and innovative solutions to mitigate and cope with these impacts, and (iii) enable and improve participation of different water stakeholders and sectors. Furthermore, the WG Water & Climate will define and prioritize R&D gaps and provide an overview of strategies and measures to adjust European water management to a changing climate on multiple scales. Finally, as WG Water & Climate is an integrative topic, which affects many related disciplines such as food production, urban planning and industrial processes, we will investigate the interfaces with other relevant Water Europe WGs and clusters.

 

Expected deliverables

White paper on Identification and prioritization of R&D topics Summary of interfaces between other WE WGs and Clusters

The scope of the WG Human Capital is to create sensitivity within the water sector to the human factor of the sector at European level and positioning the European water sector as a reference in this domain by the definition of a common agenda, creating possibilities and its level of expertise.

With the WG HC we want to support and accelerate the innovative water sector with the creation of a human capital agenda. This WG will collect the knowledge and will set up and supports collaborations on human capital to support the technical innovations and the creation of a water smart society. The knowledge and programmes of this WG can be of service to all other working groups within Water Europe, since they all build upon their human capital.

The WG HC will also connect with the other WGs to collect information on their needs and knowledge for the skills agenda for the future. It will create Water Europe as inclusive organization with not only eye for the technical view of innovations but also room to development of innovations to the human capital.

 

Expected deliverables

Workshop Policy brief

WG scope:

Implementation of WE Water Vision, including realization of a European Water-Smart Society 

 Water reuse for urban, agriculture and industrial usages; 

Water efficiency of industrial processes (quality, volumes, energy); 

Policies: 

1. European Green Deal (Clean Water action plan, Biodiversity, Circular Economy, zero pollution, CAP reform, Climate neutrality); 
2. Proposed Regulation for water reuse for agriculture irrigation; 
3. Review of Industrial Emissions Directive (IED); 
4. Sectoral BREFs documents (BAT conclusions) 

Expected deliverables

 Q4 2019 / Q1 2020 – Preparation of position paper on water efficiency and reuse; 

Q1 2020 – Preparation of WE written contribution after Final IED Stakeholder workshop; 

Q1/Q2 2020 – Contribution to WE reactive statement to European Green Deal policies (clean water action, circular economy, biodiversity, etc) 

Q1/Q2 2020 – Contribution to WE Statement on publication of revised Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (if revised) 

Q1/Q2 2020 – contribution to WE Statement on publication of revised Water Framework Directive (if revised)