Newsletter November 2020

The Water JPI held its 17^th Governing Board meeting on 4^th November 2020. The online meeting facilitated discussion on the future of the Initiative, including exchanges on the budget for next year and decision on membership status for some countries. The Governing Board appointed two institutions that will be invited to join the Water JPI Advisory Boards from 2021. Furthermore, the Governing Board elected the new Water JPI Coordinator, Vice-Chair and Chair (More information here).

Thanks to the active participation of Avelino Gonzalez from the European Commission - DG Research and Innovation, a detailed discussion was facilitated on (i) the state of development of European partnerships and Member States commitments to the proposal Water4All: water security for the planet and (ii) the timeline and process for the design of Water4All strategic research and innovation agenda.

The meeting was also an opportunity to update Governing Board members on ongoing activities. In particular, the Governing Board supported a joint strategy elaborated between the AMR, Oceans and Water JPIs in the frame of the AquaticPollutants ERA-NET Cofund, and a Policy Brief produced by the AQUATAP-ES group and entitled “Integration of the Ecosystem Services Approach into Policy and Practice is Key for the Sustainable Management of Aquatic Resources”.

The U.N. has declared 2021 to 2030 ‘Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’. Never has a policy brief on Ecosystem services been so timely in its release than the one produced by the Water JPI AquaTAP-ES network: ‘’Integration of the Ecosystem Services Approach into Policy and Practice is Key for the Sustainable Management of Aquatic Resources’’. To download: AquaTAP-ES Policy Brief on Ecosystem Services for Policy & Practice

Aquatic ecosystems provide services that yield essential goods and benefits that people and economies depend on.  However both freshwater and marine ecosystems are being degraded at alarming rates, resulting in declining biodiversity and ecosystem function, and consequently the quality of the good and benefits we derive. The goods and benefits provided by aquatic ecosystems have high economic and socio-cultural values and this needs to be communicated to people and integrated into policy.  The ecosystem services approach captures the linkages between aquatic ecosystems and human well-being to support policy and practice to reverse declines. This policy brief is a step in communicating these important messages to improve the protection and management of our aquatic resources.

It is a communication tool to assist in particular policy makers in the water, biodiversity and climate arena by:

• highlighting the importance of the Ecosystem Services Approach;
• identifying the policy where the ecosystem services approach should be integrated
• presenting 6 steps on how to integrate the ecosystem services approach into the assessment and management of aquatic systems

The brief was produced following extensive national and international stakeholder consultation in early 2020.

The third AquaTAP-ES workshop on ‘’Developing guidance on developing decision-support tools for Aquatic Ecosystems Services’’ took place on October 8th 2020. Thirteen members from seven countries attended the workshop, made up of the existing AQUATAP-ES network group, members of the steering committee and the wider community of the Water JPI. The focus and workings centred on decision support systems (DSSs) and tools for Ecosystem Services, and the steps in developing a brief guidance for stakeholders. Click here for workshop presentations and proceedings: Workshop 3 AquaTAP-ES.

New Chair - Giuseppina Monacelli

Graduated in Civil Hydraulic Engineering at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 1981 and with a post-degree in Telecommunications and Information Technologies. Expert in EU funding initiatives, she was responsible for the partnership in projects and activities in the context of regional and research programmes. After her recent retirement from ISPRA, she still is dealing with water research activities in the context of Water JPI, PRIMA and in the national consulting boards on the EU Horizon 2020 on behalf of the Italian University and Research Ministry.  She has a multi-year experience in water problems, with the application of advanced methods for operational purposes. In such position, she acted as an expert on hydrological issues and water problems in WMO for twelve years and in the Common Implementation Strategy of the Water Framework Directive for the Italian Environment Ministry from 2004 to 2015.

Continuing Water JPI's ongoing activities, consolidating knowledge and expanding partnerships at EU and global level to meet the many SDGs where water plays an important role, with a special focus on SDG 6, and to manage transition from H2020 to HE will be the main objectives of this mandate. The contribution of research is essential for an adequate implementation of European water policy facing the criticalities still existing at the continental level and the global challenges affecting water resources.

Vice-Chair - Miguel Angel Gilarranz

Miguel A. Gilarranz is Professor of Chemical Engineering at University Autónoma de Madrid. His research interests in the field of water include catalytic processes for water treatment and valorization of pollutants.

He has been scientific and technical collaborator of the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) since 2006 for the National Funding Schemes for Chemical and Environmental Technology, and since 2011 for the Water JPI. He was part of the team launching and coordinating the Water JPI and WatEur CSA and WaterWorks2014 ERANET-cofund. He has also participated in WaterWorks2015, IC4Water, WaterWorks2017, Aquatic Pollutants and BiodivRestore projects.

From November 2018 to November 2020 served as Vice Chair of the Water JPI. He was renewed as Vicechair for two more years, aware of the challenges for this new term: “The Water JPI faces a new period with the upcoming Horizon Europe Programme. We will endeavour to contribute to the Missions and Partnerships, having in mind that water challenges are global and need a coordinated and inclusive response.”

New coordinator – Véronique Briquet-Laugier

Véronique Briquet-Laugier was educated in both France and the USA and has a multi-cultural life and work experiences. With a PhD in Biophysics, she worked for 17 years to elucidate cardiovascular diseases and rare haemorrhagic disorders. She has also been a consultant for technology transfer in the field of biotechnologies.

Véronique was at the creation of the French funding agency (ANR) where she developed a portfolio of national, European and international programs for the Health Department.

As a French diplomat, she spent four years in India (2010-2014) as the Science & Technology Counsellor of the French Ambassador in New Delhi, where she launched the Indo-French Water Network, a first experience in the field of Water management and policy. Recently, she also spent two years as a diplomat in South Africa as the Cultural, Science & Innovation Counsellor of the French Ambassador in Pretoria.

Expert for the French government (Nanomedicine & Forensics) Véronique still sits on evaluation panels for the European Commission in Brussels. She has been honoured with the rank of Chevalier-Knight of Ordre National du Mérite by the French Government in 2014.

Véronique joined the Water JPI in October 2020 as the successor of Dominique Darmendrail. On the 4th of November the GB elected her as the Coordinator of the Water JPI for the next 3 years.

Welcome!

The Task Force on the Interactions with Horizon 2020/Horizon EU has welcomed the Commission’s roadmap proposal «Towards a Zero Pollution Ambition for air, water and soil» as it complements very well the Water JPI Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda.

The Task Force has highlighted that the Water JPI strongly supports the ambition of the Commission to better prevent, remedy, monitor and report on pollution, and mainstream the zero pollution ambition into all policy developments. Moreover, the Water JPI is willing to coordinate with the Commission considering the accumulated knowledge thanks to both the expertise and the outputs from relevant activities and funded projects.

The Water JPI community agrees with the 4 pillar-based Action Plan as it combines enforcement, governance, technological development and social innovation measures. Within the Consultation the Task Force stressed that these measures should be strengthened by collaborative research and innovation actions in a number of areas for supporting actions on several issues such as, among the others, the development of methodologies and strategies to prevent, remediate and reduce pollutants at point and non-point sources; the development and roll-out of innovative cost-effective wastewater technologies to enhance the removal of pollutants in wastewater; and the development of tools for pollution detection, monitoring, prevention, removal and risk prediction.

You can download the Full Water JPI position paper here.

Within the frame of the IC4WATER Project, the Water JPI held on 5th November 2020 an online workshop on international cooperation in the Danube region.

The objective of this workshop was to strengthen cooperation with the Danube Region as a way to respond more effectively to existing and emerging water challenges in the area.  By exchanging with international initiatives and governmental institutions of the Danube region interested in RDI joint activities, the workshop aimed at developing the Water JPI international network in this region, collecting views from regional initiatives and countries, exchanging on priority areas and synergies with the Water JPI, proposing models for further cooperation and possible types of actions.

The workshop, introduced by the European Commission DG Regio, was attended by 28 participants representing international initiatives (Danube Strategy Point, International Commission for Protection of the Danube River, Black Sea Commission, DANUBIUS Research Infrastructure, Danube transnational Programme, Danube INCO Net), Water JPI partners, and scientists working on the Danube River.

The participants identified

• thematic synergies with the Water JPI research agenda (e.g. micropollutants, nature-based solutions, climate change effects on the hydrological cycle, water quality and water quantity)
• additional needs (e.g. harmonization of data collection and irrigation, water scarcity).
• activities of common interest (e.g. participation of young researchers, mobility actions, capacity building, peers-learning)

Download the Workshop Programme

Download the Workshop Master Presentation