Dutch national science organisation NWO awards eight Water JPI research projects
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has approved eight Dutch project proposals for the EU funded Joint Programming Initiative Water (Water JPI) on improving sustainable water resources management.
The Water JPI aims to address research and innovation to support the implementation of the EU water policy, in particular on closing the water cycle by applying sustainable management of water resources.
European leadership
Launched in 2010, the JPI Water aims to contribute to a reduction of fragmentation of efforts by EU Member States, with a view to strengthening Europe's leadership and competitiveness on water research and innovation.
The EU recognises the magnitude of the needed operations and to the geographical variation of the water problems. Accordingly, the response requires a joint multi-disciplinary approach, since outstanding economic, ecological, technological and societal challenges are to be addressed.
Dutch collaboration
Dutch researchers are collaborating in eight projects that have been funded for a total grant amount of 15.2 million euro, through the ERA-NET cofund.
The maximum funding from NWO is 250.000 euro per project.
The eight projects involved, are:
● Simtwist
Coordinator: Dr. Bas Amelung , Wageningen University & Research
Analysis and policy options in the Mediterranean region on tourism's share in current and future water scarcity and the simulation of water-related behaviour of tourism stakeholders.
● Urbanwat
Coordinator: Dr. Thom Bogaard, Delft University of Technology
Development of an integrated approach for urban groundwater management using monitoring, measuring and modelling.
● Recowatdig
Coordinator: Professor Gerrit Brem, University of Twente
Design of an installation for the staged recovery of agricultural water from drying of high moisture solid fermentation products.
University of Twente is involved in a Water JPI project to make data from hi-res satellite images wider available for water management.
● iAqueduct
Coordinator: Professor Bob Su, University of Twente
Using Copernicus satellite data at a scale of twenty meters, a high resolution Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and in-situ observations, and make this data widely available for local water management.
● IN-WOP
Coordinator: Dr. Jan Kwakkel, Delft University of Technology
Comparison of current optimization approaches in water management, based on three case studies - Lake Como basin (Italy), Seine river (France) and the Merguellil basin (Tunisia)
● RainSolutions
Coordinator: Professor Huub Rijnaarts, Wageningen University & Research
Development of a model to allow more cohere spatial arrangements of nature based solutions for urban runoffs (such as green roofs and parks - see top photo in Rotterdam) and of emerging circular solutions (such as heat recovery and urban farming).
● WaterHarmony
Coordinator: Dr. Ghada el Serafy, Deltares
Demonstration of adaptive water management The WaterHarmony project aims to bridge water demand and water supply by using big data, related to quality, quantity, circularity, reusability, human safety and economic feasibility.
● EnTruGo
Coordinator: Dr. Jasper de Vries, Wageningen University & Research
Exploration of water governance in Europe (the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden), and mirrored by one South African case, on issues such as interpersonal trust, developed through democratic innovations characterised by public participation and stakeholder processes, impact trust in government as guardian of water resources.
This new item was originally published on the websites of NWO and University of Twente.
(Photos: Municipality of Rotterdam and Wageningen University & Research)
Read also on this website
● NWO calls on use-inspired research proposals to tackle global challenges, 14 March 2017
● Conference on urbanizing river deltas shows importance of uptake of international research, 27 January 2016
● NWO grants six projects in research programme Urbanising deltas of the world, 25 November 2015
More information
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
The Hague, the Netherlands
+31 70 344 06 40
www.nwo.nl