Newsletter 03 April 2019

On March 26th 2019, the Water JPI Knowledge Hub on Emerging Pollutants Seed group held a workshop entitled  ‘Planning and Progress’, in Madrid, Spain. 29 attendees from both the Knowledge Hub seed group (expert researchers) and the steering committee (funding partners) gathered to discuss  progress to date, finalise a number of critical outputs and most importantly discuss the future of the knowledge hub and it sustainability beyond February 2020. Under the guidance of Norbert Kreuzinger, the scientific coordinator, (TU Wien, Vienna) and brainstorming breakout sessions, the work started on drafting a Business Plan for the future. Each of the national seed group members gave a short presentation on their national examples of how knowledge is exchanged and what  practices are used to communicate outputs  in their respective countries and there were many great examples to learn from. The KH Implementation Plan was Each of the attending seed group members. As part of the KH Implementation which is consider a ‘living document’ the experts worked on finding consensus on common terms and topics, agree on a shared communication approach.

From L to R:  Corrine LeGaLe Salle (Universite de Nimes), Norbert Kreuzinger, KH Scientific coordinator, (TU Wien, Vienna),Ignasi Rodriguez Roda ICRAKarin Wiberg Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Kevin Jewell Federal Institute of Hydrology Enda Cummins Unversity Colege Dublin, Don Pierson Uppsala University, Henning Sørum Norway Unviserity, Valeria Dulio NORMAN network, INERIS, Kirsti Loukola-Ruskeeniemi Geological Survey of Finland, Javier Marugan, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Kristof Demesteere, Ghent University, Serge Chiron Montpellier University.

National workshops were held in seven partner countries and the EPA (Ireland) are expecting the remaining summary reports to be returned soon.  These workshops are a critical component for the development of the new Vision 2030 and SRIA 3.0 because they provide the national perspectives and invaluable insight on current and future water challenges from partners and geographically diverse regions. 

The Irish workshop (14/02/2019) highlighted the need for a clear message in Vision 2030 and the links between the vision and the research objectives of the SRIA needs to be stated clearly.  Also, WJPI needs a clear statement regards public engagement and the strategy for delivering specific UN Sustainable Development Goals.  The current themes are still relevant but the titles should be revised to make them more concise with a clear message (e.g. Water ecosystems; Public health; Water in agriculture.) Several research gaps were identified but in particular, WJPI needs to focus on behavioural sciences/ civic engagement and getting communities to take action.

The Italian National workshop was organized by MIUR and ISPRA (14/02/2019) and they found the Vision was still valid.    Each of the themes and sub-themes were reviewed and recommendations for revisions provided, include a reduction in the number of the issues to be addressed.  Belgium is an observer to Water JPI; their National workshop (21/03/2019) recommended the Vision 2030 make a clear commitment regards climate change and the urgent need for resilient water systems. They provided their national WATER Vision 2050 that identifies priority action areas to help inform WJPI Vision 2030.  Some key recommendations included: (i) the economic impacts of extreme weather events (e.g. drought 2018) have raised awareness that a systemic approach is required; (ii) International R&D is challenging so WJPI must define clear research objectives and specific scope to ensure successful collaboration and cooperation; and (iii) a number of research and innovation questions were proposed.

Finland returned a comprehensive report on their national workshop (01/02/2019); they recommend WJPI should consider the issue of water and sanitation in small villages in underdeveloped countries because Europe has outsourced environmental problems (e.g. waste materials, hazardous chemicals) and this should be recognised/addressed.  Also, international cooperation could be improved by extending the duration of projects with developing countries.  They noted a 10-year project cycle would be better to allow for barriers/ delays as the start.  WJPI must focus on climate change, blue economy, circular economy and SDG’s for 2030 and beyond.  Finland found the current themes were too broad and the soil-water-air nexus and nature-based solutions should be prioritised in SRIA 3.0.  Water JPI video and the Policy brief were great examples of how we make impact on policy making.  WJPI should promote that messages from researchers to policy makers should be very clear, and directed to the correct level of policymaker. 

The Aqua Research Collaboration (ARC) workshop (29/03/2019) report highlighted the need for a more clear, focused Vision 2030; also, they supported alignment and compatibility with UNSDGs.   Some key future water challenges were identified including climate change, urbanisation/demographic change and policy development.  The current RDI themes are, in general still valid but need to be revised and amended to include some identified research gaps.  Budget limitations of WJPI and the need for more than one call per year were identified as a challenges to achieving the strategic aims/objectives.

The Republic of South Africa emabassy in Brussels hosted the Water JPI Management Board meeting on 26th February 2019 and the 8th Advisory Board meeting on 27th Febraury 2019.

The Advisory Board meeting gathered the ten experts involved in the Scientific and Technological Board (STB) and eight institutions involved in the Stakeholders Advisory Group (SAG). The agenda included a timeslot to exchange on expertise needed for  the renewal of the Advisory Boards. The two boards were also consulted on the preparation of the future European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon Europe, including an interactive session on the Missions and Partnerships. This meeting was also the opportunity to warmly thank the five STB members whose mandate came to an end in March 2019, and who actively acted in the board over the past years, contributing to the success of the Water JPI initiative! Thank You.

The AgriAs project on the evaluation and management of arsenic contamination in agricultural soil and water (2016 Water JPI Joint Call) held its final meeting between 11th and 14th  March 2019 in Oulanka, Finland. This final meeting gave the Water JPI coordinator and a representative of the Finnish research funder, Academy of Finland, the opportunity to:

• Discuss the progress completed to date  within the project, in particular the effect of agricultural practices on arsenic concentrations in soils at two cases studies (Freiberg – Germany, and Verdun – France), solutions for arsenic remediation for soil and groundwater, and the development in risk assessment tool (new pathway introduced for animal product consumption, new data on plant uptake); and
  
  
• There was a visit to the  research center of Oulanka, which is part of the University of Oulu, and has  studies dating back  60 years on  aquatic and terrestrial systems (freshwater, biodiversity, plant ecology) in boreal and artic conditions. The Centre is a member of the Finnish Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research network (FinLTSER), and therefore of eLTER; and
  
  
• There was further discussion about the upcoming JPI activities of interest for the AgriAs consortium and on  how to connect research centres to the JPI activities on research infrastructures and their recommendation on how to improving call management, into the future.

All the Water JPI e-Newsletter readers are invited to participate a short  survey with the aim to analyse the satisfaction level and providing some suggestions on this communication tool. The survey takes approximately 10-15 minutes of time, it is anonymous and all responses will be treated confidentially. The feedback results will be used in an aggregated form, where no response can be identified. By completing this survey, the participants accept that all of the information supplied will only be used for the purposes of this public consultation process. According to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), before completing the survey, refer to the Water JPI Privacy Policy which provides details any personal information provided will be processed. Survey closes Friday, 25 May 2019

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This procedure is intended for principal investigators involved with the Research, Development and Innovation projects funded in the Water JPI Joint Transnational Calls under the Water JPI funding instruments (WaterWorks2014, WaterWorks2015, IC4Water, WaterWorks2017 and subsequent) who wish to request an extension of their project duration. The procedure is available here

The WaterWorks2014 IMDROFLOOD (Improving Drought and Flood Early Warning, Forecasting and Mitigation using real-time hydroclimatic indicators) project is organizing an international workshop addressing the theme of hydroclimatic extremes and impacts at catchment to regional scales. The workshop will take palace on  18th  June 2019, Lisbon, Portugal. The workshop will be composed of different types of contributions (invited lectures, oral communications and posters).  Submissions are still welcomed and can be sent to imdroflood@ipe.csic.es, including author details and presentation preference (oral or poster). Deadline for submissions is 15th May 2019.

The 2nd ICRAPHE Conference  will take place in Barcelona, Spain November 28-29, 2019. The conference is, supported by the Water JPI AWARE project (2016 Water JPI Call). It main aim, is to capture outstanding examples of active research in this field and highlight future research needs. It will consist of six themes. Abstract submission  .Submission of oral presentations are from 1st March to 1st June 2019 and  Poster presentations from 1st March to 1st October2019.

This special issue was inspired by the Water-JPI IMDROFLOOD project. Submissions from all researchers working on suitable topics are welcome, even if they are not participating in the project.  All hydroclimatic researchers are invited to submit the results of their studies to a special issue of Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS) addressing the theme of hydroclimatic extremes and impacts at catchment to regional scales. Please find the instructions for authors on the NHESS web page. The individual papers will be peer-reviewed and published as soon as they are available in regular issues but will be labelled as part of the special issue and linked electronically. The main purpose of the special issue is to focus on hydroclimatic extremes (floods and droughts) at catchment and regional scales and their impacts on a broad range of hydrological and environmental systems, including mitigation approaches.

The special issue is currently open for submissions and deadline for these submissions is 30th June 2019.