A newsletter for the “Water Cycle and Soil Related Aspects” activities in the European Commission Directorate General for Research

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Specific Programmes of FP7:

On 21 September 2005 the European Commission approved its detailed plans for implementing the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). Provisional versions of the four main Specific Programmes, “Cooperation”, “Ideas”, “People” and “Capacities”, each corresponding to a major objective of European research policy, are available at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/future/documents_en.cfm

Technologies for managing resources or treating pollution more efficiently, in relation to water, soil, air, sea and other natural resources, or waste, are mentioned as one of the main targets of the environmental research.

A Competitiveness Council meeting will be held in Brussels on 28-29 November 2005 to discuss the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme and FP7 proposals as well as Specific Programmes. More information about it is available at: http://www.eu2005.gov.uk

  

More research and innovation - investing for growth and employment: a common approach:

A new Communication on innovation was adopted by the Commission on 12 October 2005. The object of the Communication is firstly to outline the commitments taken by the Community Lisbon Programme, by addressing the full spectrum of measures in support of research and innovation. The Communication underlines the importance of mobilizing a coherent mix of instruments covering research, innovation and other related policies and of the coordination between the Member States, regional and European levels. The content of the Communication aims at strengthening the links between research and innovation, with research policy focusing more on developing new knowledge and its applications and the framework conditions for research, and innovation policy focusing on transforming knowledge into economic value and commercial success. The full text of the Communication is available at:

http://europa.eu.int/invest-in-research/pdf/comm_native_com_2005_0488_4_en_acte.pdf

  

SME participation in EU research:

The profiles of 77 successful projects from the first FP6 calls aimed to special support for SME participation in European research activities have been released by the Commission. Three folders for ETI (Economic and Technological Intelligence), Co-operative and Collaborative Research, respectively, were published and are available on-line along with other publications related to EU research for SMEs at:

http://sme.cordis.lu/about/downloadable.cfm

The profiles presented include those of the ETI project PRODESTS (“Set-up of a market-oriented methodology for joining SMEs within integrated EU research projects on innovative clean and environmental technologies”, www.prodests.org), of the Co-operative Research project ECO-SOIL (“Innovative process for the on-site decontamination of soils”, www.ttz-bremerhaven.de/english/umwelt/projekte/ecosoil.html) and of the Collective Research project AQUAETREAT (“Improvement and innovation of aquaculture effluent treatment technology”, www.aquaetreat.org). For further information on these projects, please visit the respective web sites.

  

A CRAFT project developed an innovative photo-catalytic coating:

The recently completed CRAFT Project UVREC (“Innovative multi-purpose thin-film UV-Reactor”) succeeded in adapting innovative spraying technologies to coat surfaces with an innovative photo-catalytic layer of good mechanical strength and high stability. The outcome has been the development of titanium dioxide coating on polymers (sheets and foils) by cold gas spraying technology, resulting in photo-catalytic active polymer surfaces with huge potential for use in environmental technologies. In addition, a new double tube concentric UV reactor was developed that could be used for water disinfection, in particular to improve spa hygiene.

For further information, please contact Bernard Ballhorn at: reiball@web.de

  

New projects for the exploitation of non-conventional water sources:

Two Specific Targeted Research Projects developing innovative technologies for alternative water sources have recently started following the 3rd call for proposals of the FP6 priority “Global Change and Ecosystems”, which encouraged co-operation with third country partners.

The project RECLAIM WATER (“Water reclamation technologies for safe artificial groundwater recharge”) features a consortium of 16 partners, including organisations from Australia, China and Israel, coordinated by Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen - RWTH (Germany). The objective of this project is to develop hazard mitigation technologies for water reclamation providing safe and cost effective routes for artificial groundwater recharge. The consortium will assess different treatment applications in terms of behaviour of key microbial and chemical contaminants. For further information, please contact the project co-ordinator Thomas Melin (melin@ivt.rwth-aachen.de).

The project GABARDINE (Groundwater artificial recharge based on alternative sources of water: advanced integrated technologies and management) is implemented by a consortium of 14 partners, including organisations from Israel and Palestine, coordinated by the University of Göttingen (Germany). The objective of this project is to identify alternative sources of water (surface water runoff, treated effluent and imported water, brackish water bodies) to be artificially recharged and to investigate the feasibility, both environmental and economic, of their utilization. Four test sites have been selected for investigation and practical application of the approach. For further information, please contact the project co-ordinator Martin Sauter (Martin.Sauter@geo.uni-goettingen.de).

 

A cluster of projects to support the development of the membrane bioreactor technology:

The European Commission has decided to boost the development and application of European membrane bioreactor processes for municipal wastewater treatment by selecting two Specific Targeted Research Projects, AMEDEUS (“Accelerate membrane development for urban sewage purification”) and EUROMBRA (“Membrane bioreactor technology (MBR) with an EU perspective for advanced municipal wastewater treatment strategies for the 21st century”). The two consortia gather 25 European universities, research centres, enterprises and MBR plant operators. Furthermore two Australian universities and one South-African university are involved.

The cluster of two projects targets ambitious objectives:

For further information, please contact the project co-ordinators: Boris Lesjean (boris.lesjean@kompetenz-wasser.de) for AMEDEUS and TorOve Leiknes (torove.leiknes@ntnu.no) for EUROMBRA.

 

Two recent EC FP5 publications are available:

The R&D project WADI "Sustainability of European Irrigated Agriculture under Water Framework Directive and Agenda 2000" has published a book summarising the impact of the application of EU policies such as the Water Framework Directive and the Common Agriculture Policy on irrigated agriculture including detailed country case-studies.

The electronic version freely available at: http://www.uco.es/grupos/wadi/wadibook.pdf

 

The book published within the framework of the project Aqualibrium "European Water Management between Regulation and Competition" is aiming to present and discuss the role of private operators in the water sector within different national contexts.

The electronic version can be downloaded from: http://www.oieau.fr/aqualibrium/

  

Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform: consultation process for the vision document and the strategic research agenda:

A common vision document for the whole European water industry together with a strategic research agenda have been drafted by the five working groups of the Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform (WSSTP), consisting of water sector experts and representatives of water sector stakeholders. The vision paints a picture of what could be achieved by 2030 if resources for research and development resources would be made available and targeted to respond onto the issues and challenges that the European water sector is facing. The strategic research agenda describes the research that must be undertaken to realise that vision. Interested parties were invited to provide comments to the drafts of both documents, so as to the specific documents produced by each working group of the Platform, by 04/11/2005. So as it has been done for the drafts, the final version of the documents prepared by the Platform will be available at the web site: http://www.wsstp.org.

 

Mercury contamination to be discussed at CER 2005

14-15 November 2005, Brussels, Belgium:

The presence of mercury in the environment has become a subject of concern because of the tendency of particular toxic forms to bioaccumulate and compromise human health, particularly through the consumption of certain species of food such as tuna and swordfish. The major outcomes of an FP5 project addressing this issue, “An integrated approach to assess the mercury cycling in the Mediterranean basin - MERCYMS” (2002-2005) will be shown at the exhibition organised in parallel with the conference “Communicating European Research 2005” (Brussels, 14-15 November 2005), info at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/conferences/2005/cer2005/index_en.html

The aim of MERCYMS was primarily to increase scientific understanding of the complex processes leading to the dispersion and deposition of mercury to different environmental compartments.

Fur further information, please visit the web site of the project:

http://www.cs.iia.cnr.it/MERCYMS/project.htm

  

Annual workshop of the SWIFT-WFD project

5-6 December 2005, Berlin, Germany:

The annual workshop of the Specific Targeted Research Project SWIFT-WFD (“Screening methods for water data information in support of the implementation of the water framework directive”) will be held in Berlin on 5-6 December 2005. The aim of the workshop is to favour interactions with policy makers, water managers, monitoring experts and end-users in order to define the need for improving water monitoring to comply with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive.

Fur further information, please visit the web site of the project: http://www.swift-wfd.com

 

Workshop: Advanced wastewater technologies for the removal of organic contaminants and potential impact of the Water Framework Directive

12 December 2005, Wiesbaden, Germany:

The EU-funded project P-THREE ‘Polar Persistent Pollutants’ (PPP = P³) will present the final results of investigations aiming:

The attractive programme of the worshop is complemented with the opportunity to show and discuss results of other related projects such as POSEIDON and CADOX. The R&D projects AMEDEUS and EUROMBRA will also be presented.

Fur further information, please visit the web site of the project: http://www.pthree.de

 

EUROMARKET final conference

14 December 2005, Lausanne, Switzerland:

The research project EUROMARKET (“Water liberalisation scenarios: An empirical analysis of the evolution of the European water supply and sanitation sectors”) is ending December 2005. The project, which has been funded by the European Commission within the Fifth Framework Programme and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and Research, has analysed the likelihood, nature and form that water liberalisation may take in Europe in the foreseeable future. The project final conference will be held in Lausanne on 14 December 2005. The programme of the conference and the registration form are available at the web site of the project: www.epfl.ch/mir/euromarket

 

AQUAREC final conference

1-3 February 2006, Barcelona, Spain:

The project AQUAREC (“Integrated Concepts for Reuse of Upgraded Wastewater”) is ending February 2006. The project, which has been funded by the European Commission within the Fifth Framework Programme, intends to develop integrated strategies for the reuse of upgraded effluent from wastewater treatment plants as a water substitute for non-potable use. The project final conference will be held in Barcelona on 1-3 February 2006 for which a limited number of places are available. For further information, please visit http://www.tilesa.es/aquarec2006/ or the project web site: http://www.aquarec.org

 

 

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The information and views set out in this newsletter are those of the author(s) and do not reflect necessarily the official opinion of the European Communities. Neither the European Communities institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made on the information contained therein. This newsletter may be freely distributed.

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EDITOR:

European Commission

DG Research, Unit I02

Rue de la Loi 200, B-1049 Belgium                                     © European Communities, 2005.

e-mail : Avelino.Gonzalez-Gonzalez@ec.europa.eu                 Reproduction is authorized provided the source is acknowledged