Newsletters   Subscription   Contributions       Newsletter issue n°4 - July 07

 

NEWS:

FP7 – Environmental research – calls for proposals

The evaluation of proposals submitted in response to the first call FP7-ENV-2007-1 are expected to be completed by the end of July 2007. The resulting Evaluation Summary Reports will be sent to the coordinators of each evaluated proposal to give them a prompt indication of the evaluation's outcome. This indication can not be considered by any means as a commitment as regards possible selection and funding.

The next call for 2008 is currently under preparation and further consultations with the aim to be published by November 2007. In principle, the proposals' submission deadline will be in February 2008, following the rules of one single stage submission and evaluation. The overall EC budget for projects' funding is of €210 million.

 

Guidance on FP7 grant agreements' negotiation

The Commission published its FP7 Draft Negotiation Guidance Notes intended to provide insights and to assist participants invited for project negotiation. The document is available for consultation on http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/find-doc_en.html together with other guides and information material.

 

New web site for SMEs on the Europa Research web site

This site replaces the SME TechWeb site on CORDIS, so if you have that one bookmarked, stored in your "favourites" or linked to one of the web sites you manage, please update the link to http://ec.europa.eu/research/sme-techweb/

Included in the site is a link to an online test provided by the Walloon Region of Belgium which helps a company determine whether or not it falls within the Commission's definition of an SME. This is a very useful tool for all the Themes in the Cooperation Programme as they include SMEs in their projects.

The rest of the site provides information to both research-acquiring and research-performing SMEs regarding the opportunities they have to get involved in FP7.

There is also a publications library, a link to open calls on CORDIS and a page with information on how to obtain support.

 

First prototype of the Integrated Solution Support System (i3S) of the AquaStress project
 The i3S (say i-tripple-S) is a web-based application intended to facilitate the use of available AquaStress data, information and software tools. User oriented, the i3S should help understand water stress from an integrated multi-sectoral perspective and will allow the combination of a wide variety of analysis and mitigation options to deliver optimal and adaptable solutions to water stress.  

The prototype is currently in its final phase of development. The first version is available for public testing on http://test.wisl.nl/aquastress and later on through the project's web site http://www.aquastress.net/. Contributions and suggestions about its functionality and content are appreciated.

For more information, please contact C.J. (Kees) de Zeeuw (Kees.dezeeuw@wur.nl)

 

Sustainable Water Management Improves Tomorrow’s Cities Health (SWITCH)

SWITCH is an FP6 integrated project which addresses the increasing difficulties in efficiently managing scarcer and less reliable water that cities are facing due to increasing global change pressures, escalating costs and other risks inherent to conventional urban water management.

SWITCH officially started in February 2006 and the first year substantial progress was made on several activities. More that 26 research rapports have been produced and 20 PhD and 26 MSc students have been started.

Learning alliance (LA) set up has been the focus of the program for the first 12 months with progress in all nine cities. All cities have produced scoping reports and plans and most of them have identified coordinators and facilitators and have engaged with LA stakeholders. Training on the LA process was done during the kick-off meeting and the researchers have realigned research to be responsive to LA needs.

An initial inventory of important global change pressures was produced. Detailed analysis in each demo city of these factors as well as of the urban water systems is in progress. This will feed into a scenario planning process in each city in the next 12 months which further details out both these pressures and potential futures.

Demonstrations were initiated in Tel Aviv (water reuse), Lodz (river restoration) and Zaragoza (water loss & consumption reductions). Substantial planning for demonstrations at SWITCH study sites including Lima (feasibility study on peri-urban wastewater for agriculture), Emscher (storm water control) and ecological sanitation operational performance (35 global case studies) are underway.

The first year of SWITCH saw the establishment and implementation of an interactive management system, an intranet site for internal use to strengthen communication as well as an interaction within the Consortium.

Draft dissemination, exploitation and training activities have been initiated. SWITCH was officially launched during the 3rd World Water Conference in Mexico City. It has actively linked with UNESCO-IHP programme, the TECHNEAU integrated project, the Water & Climate Dialogue program, CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country, NOWRA Water for all Life and WERF initiatives. Discussion initiated with IWA, International Building Conference and Zaragoza EXPO 08 for major upcoming conference events.

More project information can be obtained from the project website:  www.switchurbanwater.eu

 

Development and Testing of Practical Guidelines for the Assessment of Environmental and Resources Costs and Benefits in the WFD (AQUAMONEY) 

The project AquaMoney aims to develop and test practical guidelines for the assessment of environmental and resource costs and benefits in the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). More specifically, a protocol for good practice will be developed for the use of economic values related to environmental and resource costs and benefits under different European water management conditions at water body, national and international river basin scale.  

The project started on the 1st of April 2006. During the first project year, the project group worked specifically on:

(i) the definition of environmental and resource costs and benefits;

(ii) their role in the WFD and policy maker demand for more guidance on their definition and assessment;

(iii) the draft technical guidelines to assess environmental and resource costs and benefits;

(iv) the available economic value estimates in the existing international water valuation literature.

The most important achievements and outputs in the first year are correspondingly:

(a) a definition note about environmental and resource costs and benefits and their role in the WFD;

(b) draft technical guidelines;

(c) an inventory of the current role of environmental and resource costs and benefits across the EU Member States and policy and stakeholder demand for more guidance on their assessment.

These achievements and outputs were presented and discussed with the international project Advisory Committee during the second plenary project meeting in Berlin at the end of the first project year.

The questionnaire survey was carried out to identify WFD policy and decision-maker and stakeholder demand for more guidance on the assessment of environmental and resource costs and benefits and the specific content of the AquaMoney guidelines. The survey was completed by 40 different European policymakers and stakeholders in more than 15 European Member States. The survey results show a clear interest in the AquaMoney project and its deliverables. The expectations regarding the AquaMoney guidelines are that they provide practical, hands-on guidance, illustrated by practical case study examples, for the use of - where possible - existing and transferable economic value estimates specifically related to the WFD issue of disproportionate costs and in the context of full cost recovery.

Based on the achievements during the first project year, work continues in the second project year in the 10 AquaMoney case studies where a common valuation design is developed for the following three main water management issues across EU Member States: water quality, water scarcity and ecological restoration of water systems. These case study results will be available together with a European database of existing economic value estimates for a wide range of surface and groundwater goods and services by the end of the second project year.

More project information including the project deliverables can be obtained from the project's website www.aquamoney.org  or from the project's coordinator, Mr Roy Brouwer, at the Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (roy.brouwer@ivm.vu.nl).

 

PUBLICATIONS and AVAILABLE DOCUMENTS

 

3rd Status report on European Technology Platforms

The above mentioned report has been published by the Publication Office of the European Communities, on March 2007 (EUR 22706 EN). The Report summarises the major developments and events which took place in 2006 (the outcomes of the major conference organised on ETPs in May 2006 in Vienna, the outcomes of the meeting between the European Investment Bank and the industrial leaders of the ETPs), provides information on the Lead Markets initiative as well as on the implementation of the Strategic Research Agenda in the context of the the 7th R&D Framework Programme and other sources of funding and, finally, summarises current and future developments issues (such as efficient management, stakeholder involvement, openness and transparency, ETP activities and platforms at national level, cross-platform interactions, the international dimension, advising on innovation-related aspects and emerging ETP initiatives).

The Report is available on ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/technology-platforms/docs/etp3rdreport_en.pdf

 

Progress review of solar desalination

The MEDESOL project has released its public deliverable "Critical assessment of the state-of-the-art and bibliographic review on membrane distillation technology, solar collector technology and low-fouling heat transfer modified surfaces". The document's purpose is to address the project's relevant aspects of conventional desalination technologies, costs of reverse osmosis plants connected to the grid, renewable energy powered desalination, solar resources and databases available for EU and Mexico, solar collector technology, membrane distillation technology, thermal storage systems for storing solar heat and state-of-the art of low-fouling heat transfer surfaces.

The document is available on http://www.psa.es/webeng/projects/medesol/results.html

 

"State-of-the-Art of Reverse Osmosis desalination", C. Fritzmann, J. Lowenberg, T. Wintgens and T. Melin (Aachen, Germany)

A sound and extensive state-of-the-art review of all scientific and technical aspects related to reverse osmosis desalination, including process theory and operational issues, has been conducted within the FP6 project “Technology enabled universal access to safe water” — TECHNEAU. The 76 pages article has been published in the journal Desalination 216(2007)1-76

 

EU Report Series available from IWA Publishing:

This EU Reports series resulted from a special agreement between the International Water Association and the European Commission and its Directorate-General for Research, aiming to articulate to researchers, policy makers and water practitioners scientific knowledge and innovative technologies for the sustainable management of natural resources, generated by multidisciplinary research projects supported in successive European Union's environmental research programmes.

This series also intends to disseminate results for dedicated policy-oriented research undertaken in the context of Community Research Framework Programmes, especially research to support the implementation of the Water Framework Directive, the Drinking Water and Urban Waste Water Directives, as well as research to support the implementation of EU Water Initiative, a European commitment towards the Millennium Development Goals.

List of available publications - EU Report Series

 

Integrated Evaluation for Sustainable River Basin Governance - ADVISOR

Editors: N. Videira, G. Kallis, P. Antunes and R. Santos

http://www.iwapublishing.com/template.cfm?name=isbn1843391481

 

Urban Water Resources Toolbox - AISUWRS

Editors: L. Wolf, B. Morris and S. Burn
http://www.iwapublishing.com/template.cfm?name=isbn1843391384

 

Integrated Deliberative Decision Processes for Water Resources Planning and Evaluation - ADVISOR

Editors: G. Kallis, N. Videira, P. Antunes and R. Santos
http://www.iwapublishing.com/template.cfm?name=isbn1843391678
 

Water and Liberalisation - European Water Scenarios - EUROMARKET

Editors: M. Finger, J. Allouche, P. Luís-Manso

http://www.iwapublishing.com/template.cfm?name=isbn1843391139

 

Comparative Evaluation of Sludge Reduction Routes - W.I.R.E.S.

Editor: P. Ginestet

http://www.iwapublishing.com/template.cfm?name=isbn1843391236

 

Computer Aided Rehabilitation of Sewer and Storm Water Networks - CARE-S

Editor: S. Saegrov

http://www.iwapublishing.com/template.cfm?name=isbn1843391155

 

Computer Aided Rehabilitation for Water Networks - CARE-W

Editor: S. Saegrov

http://www.iwapublishing.com/template.cfm?name=isbn1843390914

 

EVENTS

 

Sustainability Assessment of Technologies (SAT) - workshops' follow-up

In preparation of a related call on the development of a framework methodology and operative methods and tools for the “Sustainability Assessment of Technologies (SAT)”, the Unit on Environmental Technologies and Pollution Prevention of DG Research organised two expert and stakeholder workshops in April and June 2007.

The EU Lisbon Strategy identifies economic, social and environmental aspects as key elements to foster growth in Europe. The recent Stern Report highlights the fundamental role played by technologies in achieving the sustainability goals set up in EU and worldwide. Both short-term and long term actions need to be assessed using transparent and scientifically based assessment methods that take in due considerations the three pillars of sustainability (environment, economy, society) according to a life cycle approach. This is of outmost importance in order to avoid a simple shift of burdens between different impacts (please refer to the biofuel shortcomings in order to get an example). Moreover, it is more and more necessary to look for a higher degree of standardisation in our forecasting assessment of policies and technologies, also looking closer at issues like non-equilibrium economic models, rebound effects and other societal-related aspects.

SAT will follow a full life cycle approach and could also build upon the method and other deliverables of the European Platform on LCA (http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/).

The presentations of the two SAT workshops, the RTD background paper and the report prepared by 6 invited experts will be available probably in September 2007. A link to a dedicated web page will also be available. For more information on this subject, please contact Mr Michele Galatola (michele.galatola@ec.europa.eu).

 

Final Harmoni-CA Forum & Conference, Brussels, Belgium 25 - 27 September 2007

This Conference intends to present lessons learned from several FP5 projects with a view of improving the integration of results from European RTD funded projects into the implementation of the Water Framework Directive.

For more information, please see:
http://www.harmoni-ca.info/Conferences/Upcoming_Meetings/Final_Harmoni-CA_Forum_and_Conference/index.php

The first day of the HarmoniCA Conference will show how results from EC research projects are used to implement the European Water Framework Directive. It therefore has a strong focus on policy relevance with a view of attracting a wide policy-makers audience.

 

INNOVA-MED Course on "Innovative processes and practices for wastewater treatment and re-use", 8-11 October 2007, Ankara, Turkey. Water treatment and reuse in Mediterranean countries

The FP6 project INNOVA-MED aims at coordinating research activities in the field of water treatment and reuse in the Mediterranean region. This coordination action, involving 13 active partners, started in January 2007 and will last 3 years.

Topical experts groups will identify proved methodologies for water and sludge quality assessment and monitoring as well as innovative technologies and processes for water reclamation and sludge reduction, treatment and disposal.

Efforts in communication and knowledge transfer and use will be crystallised in a centralised information facility and series of specialised courses aiming to increase capacity building in Mediterranean partners Countries. The first course on "Innovative processes and practices for wastewater treatment and re-use" will be hosted by the Ankara University, in Turkey, from 8-11 October 2007.

Additional information is available on: http://www.cid.csic.es/innova-med/home.htm

or from the project coordinator: Prof. Dr. Damià Barceló (dbcqam@cid.csic.es)

 

Dedicated workshops linked to major international events - An opportunity for communicating research activities and outcomes

Disseminating knowledge is of outmost relevance for EC funded research projects. A suitable way for presenting and discussing interim findings or final results of RTD projects is to organise a workshop session within the context of a recurring major related event such as international conferences. This approach already proved effective and efficient in reaching larger audiences. A number of FP6 funded projects are following similar arrangements, some examples are shown below:

"Priority compounds and water reuse", Tuesday 9 October 2007 at the WWRS2007- 6th IWA Specialist Conference on Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse for Sustainability, Antwerp, Belgium: The FP6 project NEPTUNE "New sustainable concepts and processes for optimization and upgrading municipal wastewater and sludge treatment" (http://www.eu-neptune.org/) organises the workshop 2 for discussing current issues regarding the occurrence of micro pollutants in indirect potable water reuse in order and to extract the most crucial needs and to prioritize potential measures on a multi-disciplinary basis. The following aspects will be highlighted during the workshop: overview of relevant organic micro pollutants, measures at the source, measures for wastewater treatment and drinking water production, human toxicological assessment of residues in drinking water and regulation requirements and precautionary principle.

 

"Water reclamation for Safe Aquifer Recharge", Wednesday 10 October 2007 at the WWRS2007- 6th IWA Specialist Conference on Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse for Sustainability, Antwerp, Belgium: Workshop 3 intends to review the current international practice in the so-called “managed” or “artificial” aquifer recharge purposes considering different alternative water sources such as reclaimed water or captured storm water. Building on an overview of practices, problems and barriers for further implementation key questions should be addressed, particular those which are considered in the ongoing research projects such as RECLAIM WATER (http://www.reclaim-water.org/) and Gabardine (http://www.gabardine-fp6.org/). The workshop has the objective to inform about the approaches and preliminary results of those research projects and to provide feed-back into the projects to make best possible use of the significant resources assembled.

Additional information about the Conference is available on http://www.wrrs2007.org

 

"MBR Network Workshop", Monday 29 October 2007 at the 7th Aachen Conference Water and Membranes, Aachen, Germany: The FP6 projects AMEDEUS and EUROMBRA have started their activities at the end of 2005, focussing on research and development of the membrane activated sludge technology. Together with two other  EC funded projects, they have constituted the MBR-Network cluster (http://www.mbr-network.eu/) that today counts 30 members (comprising R&D centres, end-users, SMEs and universities) with a budget of €10.2 million. The workshop will focus on presenting an overview as well as new trends in MBRs and will discuss membrane development and process improvement for MBR systems.

Additional information about the Conference can be found on: http://www.ivt.rwth-aachen.de/index.php?id=56&L=2

The MBR Network will organise a session that will take place on Thursday 8 November 2007 at the IMSTEC 07 - 6th International Membrane Science and Technology Conference, Sydney, Australia (http://www.membrane.unsw.edu.au/imstec07/). The workshop will be an opportunity to showcase interim achievements related to major project objectives:

"Workshop on Indicators development – Aquastress / Waterstress Matrix", 12 November 2007 at the CAIWA 2007 - First international conference on adaptive and integrative water management, Basel, Switzerland: In this dedicated workshop, partners of the FP6 project Aquastress (http://www.aquastress.net/) will provide an overview of an integrated tool for evaluating water stress conditions, the Aquastress Water Stress Matrix (AWSM), and a composite index of water stress, the Aquastress Water Stress Index (AWSI). The implementation process of this new supporting decision tool will be presented to the workshop's audience in view to discuss and to verify its applicability or needs for further development.

Contact: Mrs María Máñez (mmanez@usf.Uni-Osnabrueck.DE)

During the CAIWA Conference on Adaptive and Integrated Water Management, a dedicated science to policy day is going to be organised on the 14th of November 2007. The policy day is a meeting place of the scientific, practitioners and policy communities to engage in an active discourse on the implications of Climate Change on the water sector. Emphasis will be given to the role of scientific research to support the development and implementation of adaptation strategies and adaptive and flexible approaches to water management needed to better cope with uncertainty and complexity.

Additional information on the Conference is available on http://www.newater.uos.de/caiwa/

 

RTD RESULTS: USE, EXPLOITATION AND COMMUNICATION EXPERIENCES

 

Intermediate results of MATISSE's project are available:

The main goal of the FP6 integrated project MATISSE is to develop and improve methodologies and tools supporting Integrated Sustainability Assessments (ISA). The ISA process considers different scales (time, space …) affecting the dynamics of sustainable development and integrates social, cultural, economic and ecological concerns as well as individual and collective prospects.

The main expected project's outcomes are:

1. A common conceptual framework for ISA development, implementation and evaluation in relation to different domains and contexts.

2. A future tool portfolio for ISA that will improve and interlink existing tools (and methods for ISA

3. To apply the new ISA tools in four cases :

- agriculture, forestry and land-use;

- resource use, waste and dematerialisation;

- water (using the example of Ebro delta, Spain);

- sustainable environmental technology development.

4. To ensure adequate involvement and engagement of stakeholders and policy makers throughout all project's activities.

Preliminary results of the project are publicly available as Working Papers and are open for debate and improvement. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

MATISSE Website: http://www.matisse-project.net/projectcomm/index.php?id=831

 

NOAHS ARK - Global Climate Change Impact on Built Heritage and Cultural Landscapes

Climate change over the next 100 years will exhibit a range of direct and indirect effects on the natural and material environment, including historic buildings. Linking global changes to the response of material surfaces of archaeological and historic structures remains a challenge. NOAH'S ARK has determined the meteorological parameters and changes which could be the most critical to our built heritage. It has predicted and described the effects of climate change on Europe's material heritage over the next 100 years, with the aim to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies for the historic buildings, monuments, materials and sites, likely to be most affected by climate change effects and associated impacts.

The results of the project allow the prediction of the effect of climate and pollution on cultural heritage and investigation of future climate scenarios on a European scale. The study also offers guidelines to help limit the effect of climate change on monuments, suggesting methodologies such as the increased frequency of repairs or the installation of barriers on buildings to reduce salt deposits.

The Project has included a Policy Advisory Panel who has met regularly and has directed project outcomes to legislators on a European level. In particular, the two Deliverables (at 12 and 36 months) were specific products of the Policy Advisory Panel who included MEP representatives .

Meetings particularly attended by policy makers:

Website: http://noahsark.isac.cnr.it

 

 

MORE INFORMATION: click here

 

LEGAL NOTICE

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.

See also http://europa.eu.int/geninfo/disclaimer_en.htm

 

EDITOR:

European Commission

DG Research, Unit I03

Rue de la Loi 200, B-1049 Belgium                                     © European Communities, 2007

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