Newsletter September 2021

As part of the Cairo Water Week that will address the main theme “Water, Population and Global Change: Challenges and Opportunities”, the Water JPI will give two oral presentations. Véronique Briquet-Laugier, Water JPI Coordinator, will present “The Water Joint Programming Initiative: towards a sustainable instrument to tackle Global Challenges & the UN Sustainable Development Goals”, and Esther Diez, Water JPI Secretariat, will give a talk entitled “Water governance: addressing research and innovation gaps in the future. The Water JPI perspective”. Both presentations will allow communicating to a great audience on latest developments in the fields of international cooperation and water governance whilst highlighting opportunities and barriers for enhanced collaboration amongst partners, as well as the potential contribution of the Water JPI in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Water JPI is also organizing a workshop on “Strengthening EU-Africa Cooperation in Water RDI: challenges and opportunities”, in collaboration with the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA) and the Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT). The three-hour event will be held online and onsite on 26 October 2021.

The event will gather representatives from the European Commission, AfriAlliance, the French Research Agency (ANR, in French), Development banks, IHE Delft, the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), Water Research Commission (WRC, ZA), and the University of Cardiff (UK) as well as members from the PHEMAC - Participatory hub for effective mapping, acceleration and capitalization of the Water Energy and Agri-Food Nexus best practices - and NEX-LABS - Nexus-driven open Labs for competitive and inclusive growth in the Mediterranean projects.

The aim of this Water JPI workshop is to explore opportunities for collaboration between Europe and continental Africa in water Research, Development and Innovation, RDI. It will mainly target at development banks, research funding agencies, international organisations dealing with water management and capacity development as well as research operators.  

The event is structured around two high-level panel discussions on:

•  Alignment of RDI programmes between Africa and EU
• Social innovation: the social debate on competing use of water in some regions of Africa, and how to increase capacity development and stakeholders and private sector participation for water RDI.

The expected outcomes of this side event are to seek modalities for enhanced cooperation between Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Opportunities for knowledge and information sharing and knowledge and technology transfer will be sought. 

The active participation of African partners in the side event, both from southern Mediterranean countries and sub-Saharan countries will feed the Water JPI and other regional programmes in the development of their international cooperation strategy in the near future, the exchange of ideas and practices on alignment, and the identification of collaborative opportunities with partner initiatives.

More information and registration for the Cairo Water Week here

For more information about the Water JPI Workshop on “Strengthening EU-Africa Cooperation in Water RDI: challenges and opportunities”, please contact the Water JPI Secretariat.

The programme of the 3^rd WATER JPI CONFERENCE on November 17, 2021 is now published. Experts from different European countries and Water JPI member countries offer insights into their projects at the transfer event. They will report on challenges and solutions from the perspective of research and practice.

Two parallel sessions will deal with the topics “Chemicals” and “Pathogens and AMR”. Plenty of time is planned for discussions and exchanging experiences.

One highlight in the program will be the video pitches of the nominees for the Junior Water Jump, a start-up event aimed at innovative “SOLUTIONS AGAINST POLLUTANTS, PATHOGENS AND ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCES IN THE WATER CYCLE”. Participants from five European countries submitted their innovations by August 16, 2021. An international jury will select the best proposals. The award is presented together with 13,000 euros in prize money. Skion Water, RWW and Isle Utilities will contribute all rewards. You can find information on the Junior Water Jump here. All submitted videos will be available online upon approval.

Moreover, there will be the opportunity to learn about the 18 transnational research and development projects of the ERA-Net Cofund AquaticPollutants, funded with 20 million euros. The aim of the interdisciplinary and transfer-oriented research within this call is to analyse the interactions between anthropogenic micro-pollutants and pathogens in the aquatic environment and to investigate their consequences for human health. An additional transfer project will support both, networking of the scientific projects as well as the transfer of their results into politics, economy and society.

The event aims at international researchers, practitioners from companies and authorities as well as politicians. Up to 180 participants are expected to attend the event in the city hall of Mülheim / Ruhr. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the participation has to be limited strongly. Alternatively, participation will also be offered via an online event. The participation fee is 60€, both for the face-to-face event in Mülheim / Ruhr and the online event.

The 3^rd WATER JPI CONFERENCE in Mülheim / Ruhr is hosted by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research.

Interested? You will find the programme and the registrations for both, the face-to-face event in Mülheim / Ruhr and the online event  here.