Newsletters Subscription Contributions Newsletter issue n°5 - September 07
NEWS:
FP7 – Environmental research – calls for proposals:
FP7-ENV-2007-1: The evaluation of eligible proposals is now completed and the resulting Evaluation Summary Report has been sent to applicants at the beginning of August. The Commission services drafted the lists of proposals suggested for funding and will initiate before mid-September the internal selection procedure. It is expected that the negotiations with successful applicants will start by the end of September.
FP7-ENV-2008-1: The next call for proposals will be published on 20 November 2007 with the 19 February as deadline for submissions. An indicative budget of about €216 million is allocated to the 2008 work programme, where more than 50 topics for research have been identified so far in the following areas:
pressures on environment and climate;
environment and health;
natural hazards;
conservation and sustainable management of natural and man-made resources and biodiversity;
management of marine environments;
environmental technologies for observation, simulation, prevention, mitigation, adaptation, remediation and restoration of the natural and man-made environment;
protection, conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage, including human habitat;
technology assessment, verification and testing;
earth and ocean observation systems and monitoring methods for the environment and sustainable development;
forecasting methods and assessment tools for sustainable development taking into account different scales of observation;
dissemination and horizontal activities.
EC Communication on water scarcity and droughts:
The Commission adopted in July the COM(2007) 414 final "Addressing the challenge of water scarcity and droughts in the European Union". This document describes a set of policy orientations for future actions including incentives for water savings, water efficiency promotion, drought risk management and securing water supply.
Best management practises are also mentioned as well as the necessary efforts needed in view to improve knowledge and data collection.
The Communication text is available on: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/quantity/scarcity_en.htm
A document issued by the European Environment Agency related to the subject, the "EEA Briefing: Climate change and water adaptation issues", is available on: http://bookshop.europa.eu/eubookshop/FileCache/PUBPDF/THAM07001ENN/THAM07001ENN_002.pdf
Better coordinated use of Framework Programme and Structural Funds to support R&D:
Mobilising these two instruments together can help fostering (much more efficiently than considered separately) the research and technological development potential to contribute and promote growth and employment at local, regional, national and European scale. The European Union Scientific and Technical Research Committee (CREST) has recently issued a set of guidelines on "Coordinating the Framework Programme and the Structural Funds to support Research and Development". This document summarises recommendations on developing strategies and strengthening governance; developing human resources and infrastructures; promoting R&D excellence and international cooperation; reinforcing results' exploitation and valorisation strategies and improving communication and information.
The guidelines are available on: http://cordis.europa.eu/documents/documentlibrary/2851EN.pdf
Advanced and novel approaches improving industrial waste water treatment: INNOWATECH
The currently ongoing European project “INNOWATECH - Innovative and integrated technologies for the treatment of industrial wastewater” started in November 2006 and will last three years. Its main objectives are:
investigating and enhancing the performance of promising industrial wastewater treatment options such as aerobic granulation, advanced oxidation processes combined with biological treatments, membrane contactors and membrane chemical reactors;
Advancing fundamental and technological knowledge;
Assessing the economic and environmental sustainability of the investigated options;
Developing integrated tailor-made solutions for end-users operating for different industrial sectors in wastewater treatment area;
Encouraging project’s results implementation for enhancing the competitiveness of the EU Water Industry;
Transferring the developed know-how to potential stakeholders and end-users inside and outside the project.
The main features of INNOWATECH are reported in the project's web-site (http://www.innowatech.org) where an open forum area is available for any potential stakeholders and/or end-users so that they can: get details, forward questions, post comments and participate to enlarged discussions.
For any question or request, please contact the project Coordinator: Dr. Antonio Lopez (antonio.lopez@ba.irsa.cnr.it)
Sustainable and Safe Re-use of Municipal Sewage Sludge for Nutrient Recovery (SUSAN):
The FP6 project SUSAN started in November 2005 with the aim to develop technologies and strategies for safe and efficient recovery of nutrients as fertilisers from municipal sewage sludge. The project focuses on developing and validating a thermo-chemical process enabling heavy metals removal and transfer of phosphorus into mineral phases with high bioavailability. This technology shall be suitable for large scale facilities handling up to 50,000 tons of ashes per year.
So far, the investigations demonstrated the capability of the proposed technologies including efficient heavy metal removal and conclusive increase of phosphorous bioavailability in the treated ashes.
An overview of the activities as well as a description of the current project's status are available on: http://www.susan.bam.de.
Focus on the Priority Pollutants management options
SCOREPP and SOCOPSE are 2 FP6 projects that started towards the end of 2006. They are thus now about to accomplish their first year. Both projects deal with source control of priority pollutants and aim at developing guidelines for stakeholders to help them achieve the requirements in this regard of the WFD. An interaction between these 2 projects is gradually taking place.
SOCOPSE is looking mostly at hazardous priority pollutants to provide guidelines and decision support tools for their management at river basin scale. Their activities include material flow analysis, a series of detailed substances reports, identification of measures and management options and application to 4 case studies. A strong interaction with industry research networks, authorities and NGOs is envisaged. (http://www.socopse.se/ )
SCOREPP aims to assess a wider selection of pollutants including all the priority pollutants and an additional list of relevant pollutants. This project will develop appropriate strategies to reduce emissions from urban areas into the receiving waters. The activities include the identification of sources in urban areas, identification of measures, assessing their cost-effectiveness and validation of the strategies on a number of selected case studies. Interaction with relevant stakeholders is also an integral part of the project. (http://www.scorepp.eu/ )
PUBLICATIONS and AVAILABLE DOCUMENTS
Report from the Workshop on Nanotechnologies for Environmental Remediation - JRC Ispra 16-17 April 2007 - David Rickerby and Mark Morrison
The workshop addressed 2 main topics "Water treatment and Purification" and "Air, Water and Soil Decontamination" through 15 presentations. The discussions focussed on the following issues:
1) Which are the most effective nanotechnologies for prevention or cleanup of pollution?
2) How dependable and close to market are remediation techniques based on nanotechnologies?
3) What additional research is needed to exploit the full potential of nanotechnology for remediation?
4) Which environmental nanotechnologies are the most promising and should be further explored?
5) What are the potential risks of using nanotechnologies in remediation applications?
6) Is there a need for targeted funding for infrastructure to support nanotechnologies for environmental remediation?
7) What opportunities are there for setting up EU collaborative projects on environmental nanotechnologies?
The report summarising the outcome of the workshop is available at http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology/reports/report101.php
"Recommendations for life cycle based Indicators for Sustainable Consumption and Production in the European Union"
Following the 3rd International Life Cycle thinking workshop in Cyprus on "Sustainability and Decoupling Indicators: Life cycle based approaches", main outcomes and discussions have been published as an EU Scientific and Technical Report "Recommendations for life cycle based Indicators for Sustainable Consumption and Production in the European Union".
The Report can be downloaded from http://viso.jrc.it/lca-indicators/JRC%20ST%20Report%20-%20Worksop%20Outcomes.pdf
Managing urban and cultural heritage: policy briefs:
Concise and relevant information is frequently necessary to summarise and present efficiently the main outcomes of research projects. In the area of urban and cultural heritage, four so-called policy briefs have been prepared in view to communicate the projects' results and offer guidance and advice to local political leaders, senior officials and representatives of public authorities and local communities.
The four documents available in the area of urban and cultural heritage are:
SUIT - Using environmental assessment to conserve historic urban areas and
SUT Governance - Partnerships and benchmarks for Sustainable Urban Tourism.
The policy briefs also refer to the projects' web-sites and the available public reports. You are cordially invited to examine these and consider how they might help you.
The policy briefs are available on http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/rtd/eesdwatkeact/library?l=/policy_briefs
EVENTS
Water monitoring technologies: Harmonised approach to performance demonstration workshop, Kiwa Water Research in Nieuwegein, The Netherlands, 25-26 October 2007.
This international workshop is an initiative of the EU-funded projects TESTNET and TECHNEAU. This workshop's objective is to bring together the knowledge as it is developed in all kinds of different projects and initiatives, in order to learn from each other’s experiences. This workshop will provide an overview of the latest developments in the establishment of a European ETV (Environmental Technologies Verification), and the state-of-the-art in on-line (bio) monitoring technologies and their practical application in the field.
For more information, please contact Anders Lynggaard-Jensen (alj@dhigroup.com) or Corina de Hoogh (corina.de.hoogh@kiwa.nl).
International conference on "Risk Assessment in European River Basins - State of the Art and Future Challenges" UFZ, Leipzig, Germany, 12-14 November 2007.
This conference is organised in the frame of the Coordination Action RISKBASE (http://www.riskbase.info/) and the Integrated Project MODELKEY (http://www.modelkey.org/) and aims at bringing together leading scientists as well as European stakeholder groups involved in the assessment of risks to European river basins. Invited speakers will discuss the latest developments of the recent European research in the following fields, particularly in terms of practical implementation for river basin management in order to bridge the gap between science and management practice:
ecosystem goods and services in risk-based management;
water regulation at risk under global change;
groundwater ecosystems and drinking water supply at risk;
hydromorphological changes and risks to biodiversity;
eutrophication risks to biodiversity;
risks of environmental pollutants to ecosystem and human health;
integrated risk assessment on a basin scale.
Please visit the conference website http://www.ufz.de/europeanriversatrisk for further information.
3rd European Forum on Eco-Innovation: Boosting eco-technologies through verification, Paris, France, 26-27 November 2007.
The European Forum brings together business and policy perspectives in a series of unique events that explore strategic orientations for eco-innovation and environmental technologies, in support of the EU Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP). This third edition of the Forum will be held in Paris and will be devoted to the role of Environmental Performance Verification (EPV) in supporting the market take-up of eco-technologies.
Contact person Pierre Henry, DG Environment, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/etap
3rd International Forum on Systems for Environmental Performance Verification, Paris, France, 28 November 2007
Systems for Environmental Performance Verification aim to ease the access to the market of environmental innovations by ensuring beforehand a check on claimed performances. Such systems were born in North America and are currently disseminating in Europe. The third issue of this Forum takes place in Europe for the first time. It will display state of the art of existing systems and debate international acceptance of verification systems.
For further information, please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/etap/events_en.htm .
First announcement: "World Conference on Marine Biodiversity" Valencia, Spain 11-15 November 2008
The EU Network of Excellence MarBEF "Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning" is organising an international conference aiming to:
review the current understanding of marine biodiversity, its role in marine ecosystem functioning and its socio-economic context;
assess current and future threats and potential mitigation strategies for conservation and regulation of marine resources;
identify future research priorities.
Provisional time table:
Proposals for sessions: 1 November 2007
Submission of abstracts: 1 February 2008
Preliminary Programme: March 2008
Additional information on http://www.marbef.org/worldconference/
RTD RESULTS: USE, EXPLOITATION AND COMMUNICATION EXPERIENCES
REBECCA - Relationships between ecological and chemical status of surface waters
Period: 1/12/2003 – 31/05/2007. EC contribution €3.997.952. Coordinator: Seppo Rekolainen, Finnish Environment Institute – SYKE, Finland (seppo.rekolainen@environment.fi). Project URL: http://www.environment.fi/default.asp?contentid=237765&lan=EN
The strategic objective of REBECCA has been to provide relevant scientific support for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The two specific aims of the project have been, firstly, to establish links between ecological status of surface waters and physico-chemical quality elements and pressures from different sources, and, secondly, to develop and validate tools that member states can use in the process of classification, in the design of their monitoring programs and in the design of measures in accordance with the requirements of the WFD.
The REBECCA project has collected existing data owned by REBECCA partners and from data providers outside the consortium. Thus, data sets with improved geographical (and also temporal) coverage have been produced. They include chemical and biological data from thousands of sampling sites in European lakes, rivers and coastal waters. Ensuring the data quality was a big challenge due to the lack of harmonised sampling and analysing methods as well as lack of harmonised taxonomic resolution. These data sets have been then used to assess the following issues:
investigating the sensitivity of single species, other taxonomic groups, multi-metric indices against different pressures and chemical indicators;
testing the response the existing biological indicators (described in earlier literature) against pressures using the REBECCA data, and adjust these relationships, if necessary;
developing new biological indicators which would have a better response, and indicators for pressures not referred to in earlier literature;
assessing reference conditions (in lakes);
evaluating, if ecological thresholds (points of no return) can be found across the pressure gradients;
developing new tools to be used in ecological classification.
These analyses' results are all available on the Toolbox project's website: www.rbm-toolbox.net/rebecca .
Much attention has been paid to organise a continuous information flow between the project and end-users of its results. At Community level, the most important link has been between REBECCA and one of the WFD Common Implementation Strategy groups, namely the ECOSTAT working group. REBECCA scientists have also been working together ECOSTAT Geographical Intercalibration Groups to provide them with information in order to set the ecological class boundaries for surface waters.
Sustainable brownfield regeneration in cities and urban environments:
The FP5 project RESCUE aims to develop tools for the practical work of real estate owners, planners, architects, engineers and public authorities involved in the complex processes of brownfield regeneration projects. A number of achievements resulting from this project are publicly available on the project's web site: http://www.rescue-europe.com/html/results.html .
The manual "Best Practice Guidance for Sustainable Brownfield Regeneration" presents and summarises major tools and products issued by the RESCUE project:
It is expected that, by contributing to reduce the costs of land rehabilitation, the RESCUE results will help in implementing sustainable brownfield regeneration projects, saving natural resources and improving the quality of life.
AQUAREC - contributing to sustainable wastewater reuse:
Wastewater reuse is increasingly accepted as a reliable alternative source of water. Adequate management and safe reuse concepts are required for further deployment and adoption, particularly in areas suffering water shortages.
The FP5 research project "Integrated Concepts for Reuse of Upgraded Wastewater", supported by the European Commission under the Key Action "Sustainable Management and Quality of Water", was completed in 2006. The partners successfully delivered a number of publicly available results contributing to establish a reference baseline addressing issues such as quality standards for water reuse in Europe, integrated water reuse strategies, handbook on water reuse feasibility studies, participative planning for water reuse projects, management guidelines for the implementation and operation of water reuse schemes or water treatment options.
Most of the reports are available in PDF-Format on the project's web-site http://www.aquarec.org/ under the “Project Results” section.
AthenaWeb - Communicating science:
AthenaWeb is a web-based service for European professionals interested in audiovisual science communication. Made of a video portal and of a virtual workspace, the tool aims to stimulate science communication among contributors and users that include institutions, universities, labs, corporations, not-for-profit organisations and, of course, the television and film industry (broadcaster, journalists, documentary makers, producers, people who commission TV programming, etc.).
AthenaWeb: http://www.athenaweb.org/
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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