Newsletter May 2022
Water JPI Governing Board, Malta as new member and election of a new Coordinator!
The Water JPI hosted its 20th Governing Board meeting online on the 17th May 2022 and 20th May 2022 of the meeting was dedicated to the usual business with decisions on strategic orientations, with the approval of the 2021 executed budget and updates on member commitments to the JPI functioning for 2022, exchanges on the Water JPI implementation with the update on the action plan for the period 2022-2023, the renewal process for the Advisory boards, and the finalisation of the international cooperation strategy, as well as an update on the status of the European partnership Water4All and an exchange with the European Commission on EU Missions and the next Work Programme.
This meeting was also the opportunity to introduce a new member country, joining the Water JPI as Observer, Malta. The Energy Water Agency was unanimously welcomed as new member! In 2022, the Water JPI memberships counts with twenty voting Member countries (AT, CY, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, IE, IL, IT, LV, MD, NL, NO, PT, RO, SE, UK and ZA), five Associated Partners (BE, EE, PL, TN and TR), four Observers (EL, HU, MT and SI), and the European Commission as non-voting member. The expansion of the Water JPI partnership demonstrates again buy-in from Member States to the philosophy of the Water JPI resulting in increased critical mass, alignment and coordination of efforts.
Last but not least, Esther Diez-Cebollero, who has a long-lasting experience within the Water JPI community, was elected as new Coordinator of the Water JPI until December 2023. Congratulations to Esther! Esther is succeeding Véronique Briquet-Laugier, who started a new position as chief of Strategy in a private foundation dedicated to research and innovation for mental disorders.
The second day of the Governing Board was dedicated to the global impact assessment of Water JPI activities. The online launch event of the report was followed by more than 60 people. Amongst other results, the workshop highlighted the role of the Water JPI in water RDI alignment, proved by the capacity of the initiative to coordinate national research interests and priorities. Lessons learnt since the launch of the initiative will be key in the structuring of future activities and the implementation of the Water4All Partnership. The Water JPI Global Impact Assessment report will be available online soon.”
AquaticPollutantsTransNet stakeholder “tools” for the research projects
One of the goals of AquaticPollutantsTransNet (TransNet) is to connect researchers with end-users who can use their innovations. Achieving this connection requires the identification of various stakeholders in the field of Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs), Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) and pathogens in aquatic environments. To help the 18 funded AquaticPollutants research projects identify relevant actors, TransNet developed a Stakeholder Identification Guideline, which outlines an iterative process combining internet search with key words, analysis of participation in various professional events or memberships in important networks in the field. Identification is focused on institutions, but it is also interesting to identify specific people in order to contact them for interviews: indeed, some professionals have worked or are working in several organisations. Their knowledge of the field, and the relations between stakeholders, is then particularly sharp.
At this stage, the information collected can be organised in a stakeholder directory created by TransNet. In this directory, created with Microsoft Excel, the identified stakeholder organisations and the associated contact persons are added, and their fields of expertise and roles along the pollutant’s life cycle can be identified.
Once actors are identified, the second step is to characterize the links between them in order to understand the overall dynamics of the sector. This step leads to the mapping of the (more or less official) networks of stakeholders involved with issues relating to CECs, AMR and pathogens. TransNet proposes to distinguish different roles: pollutant emitters, problem owners, actors in charge of risk characterization and assessment, solution designers, solution providers. The mapping stage is based on this typology, structuring the visual stakeholder map according to the pollutants' life cycle. This work can be done at several scales, and TransNet partners started by mapping stakeholders at the national level. Here is an example of the kind of map that can be created (example from France):
Example of a stakeholder map, showing French stakeholders active in the fields of CECs, AMR and pathogens.
By using the map, one can identify existing stakeholders and their respective roles, but also existing networks that bring together these stakeholders. Above all, the map shows the “gaps” in the network: the actors that are missing from the existing exchange spaces. In the French example, few solution designers or providers were identified to tackle AMR issues and pathogens in aquatic environments.
TransNet used these tools to identify relevant stakeholders at the national level in France, Germany and Sweden. We are currently conducting interviews with a selection of these stakeholders in order to identify knowledge gaps on CECs, AMR and pathogens from the stakeholders’ points of view. These interviews and subsequent analysis will help us to pinpoint the main barriers to knowledge transfer from the research projects to end-users: Is there a lack of research and data? Are there difficulties in accessing and interpreting available data? Are existing channels to disseminate results and information insufficient? These are some of the questions we aim to answer and subsequently address in collaboration with the 18 funded research projects.
