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

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FP6- Global Change and Ecosystems: A new call for proposals is launched:

The 4th Call for proposals of the FP6 priority Global Change and Ecosystems has been published on CORDIS ((http://fp6.cordis.lu/fp6/call_details.cfm?CALL_ID=211), with a deadline on the 3rd November 2005 and an estimated budget of 205 M€. Many of the topics are addressing water and soil-related aspects (Global water cycle, water and droughts; Flash-flood forecasting; Integrated risk-based management of the water-sediment-soil system at river-basin scale; Source control of priority substances; New concepts and processes in wastewater treatment; Advanced technologies for locating, maintaining and rehabilitating buried infrastructures; Advances in desalination; New systems and technologies for irrigation and drainage…). You are kindly invited to consult the CORDIS web site for the complete list of topics, the description of the work programme and other related documentation.

Two InfoDays on “Water technologies” and “Intelligent testing strategy for chemicals” have been organized by the European Commission on 8 and 11 July. The lists of participants and presentations are available on CIRCA:

http://forum.europa.eu.int/Public/irc/rtd/eesdwatkeact/library?l=/technologies_intelligent&vm=detailed&sb=Title

 

Revised catalogues of FP6 selected projects are available:

The synopses of the Global Change and Ecosystems contracts (calls 1 and 2), can be downloaded from the CIRCA server:

All Global Change and Ecosystems projects

Water and Soil related projects

The abstracts of the proposals selected for funding after the third call for proposals within the area Water and Soil related aspects is also available:

Global 3 Water and Soil related projects

 

The conclusions of the FP5 EU project SOWA are published:

With the document entitled “Integrated Soil and Water Protection: Risks from Diffuse Pollution – Research needs defined by SOWA” (available from: http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/sowa), the SOWA project (Integrated Soil and Water Protection: Risks form Diffuse Pollution) has brought new input into the discussion of diffuse pollution and its effects on soil, water, and ecosystems. The document contains five thematic chapters giving an overview, a state-of-the-art characterisation, and an identification of research questions. Most input was drawn on the identification of the most relevant scientific questions for future research needs in the area of integrated protection of soil and water. Finally, the document gives a perspective for implementing the identified scientific research needs in a European context.

 Contact:  dietrich.halm@uni-tuebingen.de

 

 European Research - The Scientific Council is announced:

 The members of the Scientific Council, an independent body of the European Research Council (ERC), have been recently announced by the European Commission.

Conducting frontier research, as proposed by the EC under the 7th Research Framework Programme (2007-2013), the Scientific Council will define strategic issues promoting European scientific excellence.

Additional information: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/press/2005/pr1807en.cfm

 

EUGRIS, the web portal for Soil and Water management in Europe:

 The EUGRIS portal, as a product of a homonymous FP5 EU funded project, is a web based European information platform, which is openly available and provide a comprehensive and overarching information resource for sustainable groundwater and land management practice. The information EUGRIS provides as dissemination tool is a series of reviews, summaries and locations for more detailed sources across Europe.        
http://www.eugris.info

 

CER 2005: Register now!

The EC Directorate General for Research is organising its second conference on
”Communicating European Research” (Brussels, 14-15 November 2005).

The main focus is oriented towards science communication considering relevant aspect of the ongoing FP6 as well as future perspectives and preparatory actions within the FP7 context.

Additional information:

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

On-line registration: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/conferences/2005/cer2005/registration_en.html

 

The FP5 Center of Excellence REA (Research on Abiotic Environment) is announcing coming events:

 

    REA workshop in September:

On 23 – 26 September, 2005 in Warsaw, Poland the REA project organises a workshop “THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN AND EUROPEAN UNION STANDARDS ON THE ASSESSMENT OF THE INDUSTRIAL AND MINING ENVIRONMENT POLLUTION”. The main topics of the workshop are: - Quality criteria for soil, water, sediment; - Applying quality criteria for soil, water, sediment in practice and their implications; - Environmental pollution (water, soil, sediments; sources, pathways, sinks and interactions between pollutants) in environment of industrial and mining areas;

- Environmental restoration (groundwater remediation, soil decontamination, hazardous landfill leachates); - Environmental sustainability (resources management and recycling; management of water and soil quality; environmental systems approach); - Solid waste management, recycling and sustainability. For further information see: http://www.pgi.gov.pl/pgi_en  (quick access: conferences).

mail to: izabela.bojakowska@pgi.gov.pl, stanislaw.wolkowicz@pgi.gov.pl, rea@pgi.gov.pl

 

    REA conference in October:

On 20 – 21 October, 2005 in Cracow, Poland the REA project organises a conference “MASS MOVEMENT HAZARD IN VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTS”. The main topics of the conference are: mass movements, hazards and risks (landslides, mud flows, rock falls, avalanches): - investigation methods (remote sensing, interferometry, GPS, GIS); - mapping; - forecasting; - modelling and data bases; - monitoring; - mitigation. For further information see: http://www.pgi.gov.pl/pgi_en (quick access: conferences).

mail to: Piotr.Nescieruk@pgi.gov.pl, Magdalena.Czarnogorska@pgi.gov.pl, rea@pgi.gov.pl

 

Public stakeholder event of the Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform (WSSTP):

This consultative event will be held in Budapest, Hungary on 17 October 2005 and will address:

Registration: through the website: http://www.wsstp.org

Information and pre-registration: Bianca van der Wolf (Bianca.van.der.wolf@kiwa.nl, tel +31 30 60 69 582)

 

The SWIFT-WD project is organising a Laboratory Training Course and a Policy Workshop (1-4 November 2005)

In the framework of the EU FP6 project “Screening Methods for Water Data Information in Support of the Implementation of the Water Framework Directive (SWIFT-WFD)”, a series of 2-day Training Courses and Workshops will be organised. It will focus on the “Quality assurance and quality control of monitoring river basins involving screening methods”.

The Laboratory Training Course [#T03, 1-2 November 2005] is intended for laboratory staff working in monitoring. The separately organised Policy Workshop [#W02, 3-4 November 2005] addresses participants from the environmental water policy area. Both events will be hosted by the Institute for Inland Water Management and Waste Water Treatment (RIZA), Lelystad, Netherlands.

For further information see the project’s website (http://www.swift-wfd.com) or the leaflet and application form at: http://www.mermayde.nl/index.html?trainings65.html

 

DAYWATER: International Conference of Decision Support on Integrated Urban Stormwater Management (3-4 November 2005)

DayWater (FP5 RTD project, 2002-2005) developed an Adaptive Decision Support System Prototype (ADSS) for the integration of stormwater source control into sustainable urban water management strategies. The DayWater project will come to its end at the end of November 2005 and therefore invites to its final conference and workshop. The venue will be the Ecole National des Ponts et Chaussées at Marne-la-Vallée.

Deadline for pre-registration and abstract submission: 15 September 2005

More information on DayWater, the conference and the ADSS Prototype available on the web site (http://www.daywater.org)

or contact the coordinators directly (mailto:daywater@cereve.enpc.fr).

 

The last call for proposals "Scientific Support to Policies" is in preparation

Expected to be launched before mid-October 2005 - deadline early 2006, the SSP5 call for proposals will address issues of interest such as:

Detailed information will be available soon at the relevant pages on Cordis (http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/support.htm )

 

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 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