What’s New for 2024?
The WaterWorks2017 ERANET, co-funded by the European Commission, came to its end on the 31st December 2023.
This was the end of some very interesting work on strategies for filling the water availability – water demand gap. As part of the ERANET, a call for proposals was launched in 2018. Based on the topic “Closing the water cycle gap – sustainable management of water resources”, this call funded 18 projects, covering a wide range of disciplines (from social and economic sciences to nature sciences), for a total amount of over 15.2€ millions.
A brochure summing up key results of projects and expected impacts will be available soon.
The AquaticPollutants ERANET will continue its activities and some very interesting events will be held in 2024. Let’s highlight the European RoadShow of the project, which will allow the wide dissemination and valorisation of results (the European RoadShow will be followed by another one in South Africa in 2025). The roadshows will also strengthen international cooperation, establish partnerships to facilitate the uptake of the project results and where applicable advocate for regional partnerships to pilot and extend some of the projects in member countries.
BiodivRestore – KnowledgeHub
The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet - and its people. Taking this into account, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2021–2030 the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration to call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, for the benefit of people and nature. On this basis, and in collaboration with Biodiversa, the Water JPI will implement in 2024 a Knowledge Hub on Nature restoration (the BiodivRestore Knowledge Hub).
This BiodivRestore knowledge hub will contribute to the integration and sharing of knowledge, research and technological excellence to support countries in the development and implementation of their National Restoration Plans, to help ensure they can reach the targets set out in the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and Global Biodiversity Framework. It will also improve communication and networking between researchers and stakeholders to enhance research impact and knowledge transfer towards policy and society, and feed the European research & innovation strategy on this topic.
The Knowledge Hub will seek strong synergies with the Biodiversa+ and Water4all Partnerships, as well as relevant organisations (such as the European Environment Agency; IUCN; environmental NGOs) and networks (such as Society of Ecological Restoration; EGU Biodiversity Task Force etc.). Finally, the Knowledge Hub will provide a hands-on mechanism to feed the Science Service (i.e. the scientific pillar of the Knowledge Centre on Biodiversity) for issues dealing with nature restoration/nature-based solutions, and provide concrete inputs to relevant Missions (most notably the Soil Mission, and Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change).
SD WISHEES
Gathering several members of the Water JPI, the SD-WISHEES project! will pursue activities to enhance strategic coordination and cross-sector collaboration between national Research and Innovation (R&I) funding members, researchers, innovators and a wide variety of stakeholders. This enhanced collaboration should translate into more efficient strategies for the protection of cultural heritage and beyond in response to more and more frequent and severe hydroclimatic extreme events such as droughts and floods.
Some activities planned for 2024 include:
- Roadmapping of the strategic R&I needs and priorities in the field of hydroclimatic extreme events and cultural heritage.
- Completion of actions leading to the launch of a TAP action at the beginning of 2025.
- Collaboration with other neighbouring initiatives, notably the Water4All Partnership, the JPI Cultural Heritage and the upcoming Partnership on Cultural Heritage.
- Identification of main obstacles for transnational cooperation.
Last but not least, the Water JPI team will keep on posting information on latest activities. Keep a look at our website, where as part of a new showcase campaign we will publish one article per month. Have a look at the articles we will prepare on the results of WaterWorks2017 and the IC4WATER (completed at the end of 2022) funded projects, and the progress of the SD-WISHEES.
And do not forget to check out our social media!
Read Other articles:
Closing the Water Cycle Gap: Achievements of WaterWorks2017
The main water subjects treated by Water JPI
A brief overview of the different WaterJPI calls
Water4All & Water JPI: what is the difference?
Water JPI: Sharing a Decade of Expertise for Sustainable Futures