Partnerships

Water security for the planet (Water4All)

Water security for the planet (Water4All)

Partnership website: https://www.water4all-partnership.eu/

The Water4All Partnership -Water Security for the Planet- is a co-funding programme for scientific research in freshwater. It aims to tackle water challenges to face climate change, help to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and boost the EU's competitiveness and growth.

The objective of the initiative is to boost systemic transformations across the entire water research – innovation pipeline, fostering the matchmaking between problem owners and solution providers.

It proposes a portfolio of multi-national, multi-faceted and cross-sectoral approach, encompassing policy, environmental, economic, technological and societal considerations to enable water security for all on the long term.

By 2030, it intends to achieve reduced water stress, increased protection of water resources and ecosystems and enhanced resilience, mitigation and adaptation of water systems to global changes.

Draft partnership proposal (May 2020)

Contact

Commission services: Panagiotis Balabanis

Partners: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) - Olivier Bouc

What are partnerships?

Partnerships group the EC and private and/or public partners, to coordinate and streamline the research & innovation initiatives and funding in some selected key domains.

How to use partnerships?

  • orientation
    Partnerships publish strategic documents, e.g. outlining the main research and innovation challenges or key focus points.
  • networking
    Partnerships often organise events, such as info days, brokerage events, etc. Meet potential partners and learn about the nuances that are not visible in the official documents.
  • ecosystem analysis
    Partnerships typically have an advisory board, and publish impact studies of previous actions. These are good sources of information to uncover the main R&D&I players in the domain.
  • steering the agenda
    Partnerships collaborate with the EC on outlining the strategy and the future funding opportunities in their domain, based on input from industry, academia, and other stakeholders.

Testimonial

image of Miricle - Mine Risk Clearance for Europe

Miricle - Mine Risk Clearance for Europe

The Miricle project, ‘Mine Risk Clearance for Europe’, obtained funding under the European Defence Industrial Development programme call ‘Underwater control contributing to resilience at sea’. The main objective of the project was to achieve a European and sovereign capacity in future mine warfare and create a path for the next generation ‘made in Europe’ countermeasure solutions. In order to realise this objective, Miricle addressed various stages: studies, design, prototyping and testing. These stages inter alia included the successful testing of an XL Unmanned Underwater Vehicle, a protototyped mine disposal system and multiple innovative systems to detect buried mines. Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), was one of the five Belgian partners in the consortium. Within the project, VLIZ was able to forward its research on the acoustic imaging of the seabed to spatially map and visualize buried structures and objects - in this case buried mines - in the highest possible detail. VLIZ also led the work on ‘Port and Offshore Testing’, building on the expertise of the institute in the field of marine operations and technology.