Newsletter October / November 2021

To tackle one of the most pressing issues facing society – the presence of pollutants and pathogens in water resources – the three JPIs on Water, Oceans and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) brought together 32 ministries, authorities and funding organisations from 26 countries to form the new ERA-NET Cofund AquaticPollutants.

The ERA-NET Cofund includes two components: 1) The 2020 Joint Transnational Call resulted in 18 research and innovation projects (PDF) that focus on the three themes of measuring, evaluating, and taking actions related to risks posed by pollutants and pathogens present in water resources. 2) The 2020 Transfer Project call awarded to AquaticPollutantsTransNet to maximise the transfer of knowledge and impact of the projects’ research results.

The official kick-off meeting of the projects funded through the joint transnational call AquaticPollutants, in collaboration of the three Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) on Water, Oceans and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), was held on September 30. With 190 participants, the kick-off was a success.

The coordinators of the projects presented their planned research activities to address risks posed to human health and the environment by pollutants and pathogens present in the water resources and fruitful exchanges took place.

The kick-off was also the opportunity to release the AquaticPollutants website, developed by the Transfer project, and the booklet presenting information on the specific objectives and structure of funded projects around the three themes of the call: Measuring, Evaluating, and Taking Actions.

The booklet of the 18 funded projects is available for download here

The 13^th Advisory Boards meeting was organised remotely on 17 September 2021. This meeting was the opportunity to update Advisory Boards’ members on the latest Water JPI activities progress and on the development of the proposal for the European Co-funded Partnership related to water security (Water4All). The two boards met to discuss in interactive sessions (i) point of views on Water4All Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and quantification; (ii) priorities of implementation for Water4All; and (iii) Advisory Board renewal. The Advisory Boards are due for renewal in 2022, with the launch of the future EU Partnership Water4All.

An exchange on the work in progress for the development of the International Cooperation strategy of the Water JPI was also facilitated. An internal workshop (January-February 2022) will gather Water JPI members to discuss the proposed strategy. The final document will be presented at an event to be held in Spring 2022. This event will gather, amongst other participants, representatives of Water4All as the Water JPI’s international cooperation strategy report aims to feed Water4All’s internationalisation activities.

A Management Board meeting was held virtually on 7-8 October 2021. This meeting gathered the Water JPI Chair, Giuseppina Monacelli (MUR, IT), the Water JPI vice-Chair, Miguel Angel Gilarranz (AEI, ES), leaders of Water JPI Task Forces on Alignment, on Research Infrastructures and on Interactions with Horizon Europe, as well as coordinators/representatives of European Commission (EC) supported projects AquaticPollutants, BiodivRestore, WaterWorks2015, WaterWorks2017 and IC4WATER. This meeting aimed at preparing the Advisory Boards renewal and as well as the Governing Board meeting scheduled on 23-24 November 2021.

Laura Forsström (AKA, FI) was invited to present the progresses of the IC4WATER CSA Task 6.3. Impact Assessment of the joint actions and JPI activities. To perform this task, a panel of seven high level experts will assess the added value and the global impact (both scientific and societal) of the Water JPI activities and actions to the water community. The panel will review the main documents and data describing the Water JPI aims and actions (SRIA, Implementation plan, maturity maps, narratives, GB survey results etc.), carry-out interviews of key persons involved in Water JPI, provide an independent review of performance of Water JPI to date and recommendations for improvement, and formulate lessons learned for future. The results of the impact assessment will be presented in the Global Impact Assessment report launch event in Spring 2022.

Partners of the IC4Water CSA published in October 2021 a policy brief on Conclusions on business models for addressing UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and reducing the Death Valley of projects to create a Water-Smart Society beyond Europe. These recommendations were presented by Véronique Briquet-Laugier, Water JPI Coordinator, at the 2021 Cairo Water Week.

A 56% deficit in water supply relative to demand is foreseen by 2030. Water knows no border and impacts directly our economy, society and environment. This projection by the World Resources Institute reinforces the importance not only to find water-smart solutions but also to reduce the time-to-market of projects. This fact makes collaboration imperative to address the SDGs through co-creative, comprehensive and real-life collaboration for people. We need to stimulate new business models between public and private partners.

This policy brief aims to summarise the outcomes of the Water JPI - IC4WATER work package 3 (WP3: Public-Private Partnership, for a common action plan with the economic sector) by developing a common approach, identifying drivers and barriers and set up recommendations on “Business models” for addressing the SDGs. The recommendations are based on the conclusions of two workshops, one questionnaire and one webinar.

Key recommendations for public funding agencies with the aim of to better facilitate the valorisation of water research projects:

• Encourage the use of brokers, between capital, industry, and research to better connect multiple parties involved. Money itself is not the main problem; water research is interesting for private parties too.
• Support a long-term engagement to ensure proper outcomes and to prevent stop-and-go adverse effects and waste of resources.
• Facilitate Co-creation: involve local partners and business during the whole project cycle. It is necessary and important to fill the gap between cultural differences. Local partners and businesses must be involved through ‘ influential participation ’ from the very start.

The new publication is available online for download!

IC4Water Policy Brief - Conclusions on business models for addressing SDGs and reducing the Death Valley of projects to create a Water-Smart Society beyond Europe (October 2021)

In the context of their joint BiodivRestoreCOFUND Action, BiodivERsA and Water JPI launched in October 2020 a joint call to support research on “Conservation and restoration of degraded ecosystems and their biodiversity, including a focus on aquatic systems”. The call was co-funded by the European Commission and covered three non-exclusive themes:

• Studying the biological and biophysical processes at stake for conservation/restoration, and their interactions
• Assessing trade-offs and synergies between targets, benefits and policies for conservation and restoration
• Knowledge for improving the effectiveness and upscaling of conservation and restoration actions

In total, 172 eligible pre-proposals and 92 full proposals were received and evaluated by an independent Evaluation Committee that ranked the projects.

Strictly following the ranking established by the Evaluation Committee, 22 research projects have been shortlisted and recommended for funding by the BiodivRestore Call Steering Committee – composed of all the funding organisations participating in the call.

Please note that the final list of funded projects will be definitely known and published upon national/regional decisions by BiodivRestore partners.

List of the 22 projects recommended for funding:

BiNatUr - Bringing nature back – biodiversity friendly nature-based solutions in cities (FI, BE, DE, PL, PT)

BIO-TRADE - Protecting Biodiversity through Regulating Trade and International Business (FI, CH, DE, SE)

BIOCONSENT - Decision-making Support for Forest Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration Policy and Management in Europe: Trade-offs and Synergies at the Forest-Biodiversity-Climate-Water Nexus (DE, AT, BG, ES, FI, SE)

BioReset - Biodiversity restoration and conservation of inland water ecosystems for environmental and human well-being (PT, ES, NO, SE)

COAST - COnservation of mArine ecosystems around Santo AnTão, Cabo Verde:  implications for policy and society (PT, DE, ES, FR, PT-Azores)

COSAR- Context-dependence of the societal and ecological outcomes from river ecosystem restoration (FR, DE, NL, CH)

DEEP REST - Conservation & restoration of deep-sea ecosystems in the context of deep-sea mining (FR, BE, DE, ES, IR, NL, NO, PT, PT-Azores)

EMYS-R - A socio-ecological evaluation of wetlands restoration and reintroduction programs in favor of the emblematic European pond turtle and associated biodiversity: a pan-European approach (FR, DE, LV, PL)

FishME - Social and ecological effects of Fish removal in Mountain Ecosystems (FR, AT, CH, ES, RO)

ForestFisher - Priority areas for conservation and restoration of Amazonian forest-frugivorous fish interactions and associated fisheries (FR, BR, DE, PT, US)

FRESHH - Farmer acceptable REstoration of Semi-natural Habitat to limit Herbicides (FR, AT, CZ, NL, SE)

FreshRestore - Holistic evaluation and restoration measures of human impacts on freshwater ecosystems across biogeographical gradients (NO, DK, ES, FI, SE)

InterRest - Interactive effects of local and landscape scale restoration of semi-natural grasslands and agricultural fields on species interactions and ecosystem functions in different social-ecological systems (DE, BE, EE, ES, NL, SE)

MPA4sustainability - Enhancing the role of MPAs in restoring biodiversity while maintaining access to ecosystem services (DK, FR, PT, SE)

NARROW - NARRatives On restored Water (SE, CH, FI)

NICHES - Nature's Integration in Cities' Hydrologies, Ecologies and Societies (DE, BG, ES, NL, UK, US)

REMOVE_DISEASE - Conservation and restoration of degraded insular biodiversity: impacts of the removal of introduced mammals on the dynamics of infectious diseases in seabirds across islands of the Southern Ocean (PT, BE, FR, NO, SA, UK)

RESPOND - Restoring and Managing Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of Temporary Pond Landscapes (BE, ES, MA, PL)

RESTOLINK - Quantifying restoration success across biomes by linking biodiversity, multifunctionality and hydromorphological heterogeneity (DE, BR, ES, SE)

RESTORESEAS - Marine Forests of animals, plants and algae: nature-based tools to protect and restore biodiversity (PT, AT, BE, BR, CZ, ES, MA, NL, NO, PT-Azores, SE)

ReVersal - Restoring peatlands of the nemoral zone under conditions of varying water supply and quality (DE, AT, NL, PL)

Transloc - Translocations of flora and fauna for conservation and restoration: ecological, evolutionary, and socio-economic impacts at multiple scales (FR, ES, CG, MA, PT, SE)