Final Report Summary - NOVIWAM (Novel Integrated Water Management Systems for Southern European Regions)
Executive Summary:
I) THE NOVIWAM PARTNERSHIP
The NOVIWAM project brought together five European research-driven clusters experienced in a wide range of aspects of water management, which include representatives from the "triple helix" (administration, academy and industry). Those clusters represent five regions from Southern Europe: Cyprus, Albania, Poitou-Charentes (France), Andalusia (Spain) and the Northern Hydrographical Region of Portugal.
II) THE NOVIWAM PROJECT - KEY OBJECTIVES
• To facilitate cooperation between the triple helix components (authorities, business, research) of each regional cluster.
• To become a wide international research-driven network of clusters focused on water.
• To develop a research agenda proposing solutions to the needs identified in the participating regions. Out of this research agenda, 5 priority actions were clearly defined and promoted by project partners. Besides, specialists or action groups and new project consortia emerged out of NOVIWAM influence.
III) IDENTIFYING THE CORE ISSUES – SWOT ANALYSIS
A characterisation of the participating regions was conducted through stakeholder consultation and the project partner's research, concluding in a SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. The SWOT analysis provided a close look on the situation of the integrated water resource management systems and the involved stakeholders, specifically in terms of the environmental and socioeconomic context, governance and management issues, and the current scientific and technological situation and trends.
The conclusions extracted from the SWOT analysis served as drafting basis for the development of the NOVIWAM Joint Action Plan (JAP), which includes a series of actions to be undertaken and promoted jointly by the participants aimed at addressing the issues identified in the SWOT, using the internal strengths and external opportunities to correct the detected weaknesses and be ready to face potential threats.
IV) NEED FOR ACTION – JOINT ACTION PLAN
The SWOT and consultations revealed an absence of formal channels for the exchange of know-how, expertise and relevant data between researchers, public administration and the private sector, which prevents IWRM research projects to take duly into account relevant stakeholders' priorities and needs.
Water management governance also appeared in all participating region as one of the major weaknesses, mainly due to the relative novelty of the integrated water management legislation and associated administrative institutions.
Many similar needs emerged during the work and consultations around the SWOT analysis, ensuring that the research agenda embedded in the Joint Action Plan addressed real challenges in the water sector. Two short reports provided guidance on financing and implementation for research projects and actions that could emerge out of the JAP.
V) STEPS TOWARDS THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE JOINT ACTION PLAN
A series of measures are introduced by NOVIWAM partnership to ensure a high impact for its activities and its proposed actions within and beyond the initial framework of the project.
Project Context and Objectives:
Water is increasingly becoming a limiting factor for development and sustainable economic growth. In that context, the Water Framework Directive - WFD (2000/60/EC) reinforced the environmental perspective of water resources management goals in Europe, aiming the aquatic ecosystems protection and rehabilitation, and integrated planning. The WFD was an effective response to the existing concern about the weak sustainability of the business-as-usual approach to water resources management. Urban growth, as well as food and energy demands and recreational activities, are some of the steadily increasing pressures over water resources. This is the case in the Mediterranean basin, where an uneven distribution of water in space and time is the main feature of the hydrological regime. Furthermore, several regions are water scarce (below the 1000 m3/inhab/year threshold of the UNDP indicator of water stress) and the renewable resource exploitation index is over 25% in several regions. In combination with an increased water demand, the negative trends on droughts and floods will worsen in the future, according to all climate change scenarios regarding Southern European countries.
Sustainable water use and river basin management under these circumstances requires increased levels of integration and communication between users, water managers, planners, policy makers and scientists across spatial scales. To improve management through such integration, many authors highlight the importance of a meticulous ex-ante analysis of the water governance system, its actors, interests, values, and processes. As a matter of fact, governance model that success at fostering collaboration and communication among stakeholders are rather difficult to find anywhere in the world. The exchange of knowledge and innovation amongst water stakeholders is rather slow and erratic, having an impact in terms of market competitiveness and quality of the information available for management and decision-making.
Both the focus on actors and governance were vital for the successful implementation of the project Novel Integrated Water Management Systems for Southern Europe (NOVIWAM), launched under the EU’s 7th Framework Program of Research and Technological Development (FP7) within the Regions of Knowledge (RoK) Initiative. NOVIWAM had interregional and multilevel co-operation at its core, aiming at sharing water management innovations for attaining WFD goals. By learning through sharing experiences and pooling the related science and know-how, the capacity to address water problems increased within the involved regions and innovative solutions and research, technology development and innovation (RTD&I) projects were conceived.
The NOVIWAM project involves entities from five territories from southern Europe: the North of Portugal, Andalusia in Spain, Poitou-Charentes in France, Albania and Cyprus, and includes representations from public administration, research and business. The main goals of the project are to facilitate cooperation between authorities, research, and business of each regional cluster, to become a wide international research-driven network of clusters focused on water and to develop a research agenda proposing solutions to the individual and common knowledge-based needs identified in the participating regions.
To achieve this, the project carried out an intensive characterisation of the participating regions, concluding in a SWOT analysis. It served as drafting basis for the development of the NOVIWAM Joint Action Plan (JAP), which includes a series of actions to be undertaken and promoted jointly by the participants. Actions aimed at addressing the issues identified in the SWOT, using the internal strengths and external opportunities to correct the detected weaknesses and be ready to face potential threats.
NOVIWAM targeted the following intermediate objectives in order to achieve tangible results:
- Identifying impediments and factors of success of regional research driven clusters, and research systems and policies and institutional systems faced by their components through a SWOT analysis resulted from the detailed mapping of their current situation.
- Exchange of best practices and complementary staff exchanges between actors in different regional research driven clusters. Mutual learning and mentoring in order to catalyze the development of river basin management and planning tools with capacity to address the increasingly regulated sustainable use of water resources, environmental conservation and risk management. Through a number of actions including thematic workshops, training sessions and temporary staff exchanges between the different members.
- Design of a Joint Action Plan (JAP) for the development and implementation of integrated catchment and river basin management technologies specifically adapted to Mediterranean climatic zones that covered all of the phases that go from basic research to the end user based on the interactions between regional research driven clusters
- Establishment of permanent links between the involved regional clusters by the development of a Joint Action Plan supported by an Implementation Plan identifying the partners involved, the activities proposed and the funding schemes integrating both regional and national funds and European funds (Structural Funds, Framework Programme and Competitiveness and Innovation Programme), optimising the use of the joint capacities of the participating members and making the best use of the synergies existing between the different funding schemes.
- Encouraging the creation of new cluster initiatives in other EU regions, by their participation in dissemination Workshops of the project development, their involvement in further collaborative projects resulting from direct action plans, etc. Particular attention will be paid to the regions of the Mediterranean and Black sea basin, for which a specific dissemination strategy will be developed.
- Providing guidance and solutions for local policy makers and public authorities as well as improving RTD policies in existing clusters from other European regions. This objective will be achieved through the development of guidance reports for authorities and other regional actors and guidelines for the use and integration of different models (e.g. GIS, water quality, sediment transport, soil erosion or climate) for the use of authorities and water managers
- Reinforce and improve the regional water management policies supporting the development and implementation of Integrated Catchment Management Models in the participating regions, particularly models that are not alien to the particular dynamics of periods between precipitation events in the regions involved, thus reducing the dependency of the clusters to external/foreign regions/actors.
- Identifying fields for research for promoting environmental industries' competitiveness; focusing on technologies for markets with high growth potential, one main outcome of the project will be the development of a cross-regional joint research agenda, setting priorities for research in the field of Integrated Water Resources Management and promoting cluster development in general. This agenda will include development perspectives, strategic goals and concrete development activities to be pursued by the regions in the future in order to improve the competitiveness of Environmental Industries in Europe.
- Supporting strategic collaboration of clusters in Europe. To increase the outreach of the project a tool-kit and a training workshop concept will be developed. Both is aimed to involve and train SMEs, research and public Stakeholders from other regions beyond the project partners. The tool-kit is based on case studies, guidelines and background information, mirroring lessons learned and main findings out of the project. The training workshop supports the dissemination of the findings and know-how developed during the project.
- Support for SMEs in research and technology transfer. Developing the technological capacities and improving the competitiveness of companies involved in water management, especially SMEs. Improving their capacity to comply with European regulations such as the WFD and their level of competitiveness both at a regional and multinational level
- Setting up a pan-European platform to connect the environmental industries with experts and research institutions. The project will establish a European network to promote synergies between regional, national, EU & research policies and to reach sufficient critical mass to acquire and develop international visibility. Thus the project consortium aims to collaborate with further local and regional partners that have a similar ambition in order to link environmental hubs and clusters all over Europe in this sector.
- Disseminating the project, its aims and results throughout the activities contained in the dissemination plan.
Project Results:
For a better organization of the information, the science and technology results achieved by the project will be framed within each of the Work Packages. It must me remarked that the foreground of the project supports S&T, but does comply with the CSA-CA requirements, therefore, the foreground are not the result of RTD work.
Work Package 1: Characterisation of Regional Clusters and Research Agendas
The first objective of WP 1 was to have a detailed characterization of each partner regional cluster in order to establish a common work base and to know different needs and competencies of partner regions. In this WP, the consortium developed activities in order to identify and characterize the main agents involved in the regional clusters, RTD regional capabilities as well as the key competencies and needs of companies and other end-users. Another objective of this WP is to detect complementarities and synergies both within and between the regions. The information gathered was integrated in a detailed report, which includes SWOT analyses of all participating regions.
The characterisation work started by a stakeholder analysis performed by the partners and this served to contextualise the study of the region as well as for the interview and online survey phases. Methodologically, the different parts of the reports included information gathered from stakeholders in the regions and countries through online questionnaires and direct interviews, this information complemented the deskwork done by the participating partners.
There were eight different online questionnaires corresponding to the needs of different tasks and subtasks. The questionnaires were emailed to stakeholders both within and outside the participating regions, these stakeholders were selected from the partners’ contacts. In total, 803 stakeholders answered to the online questionnaires.
The partners carried out 37 direct in depth interviews with selected stakeholders. The information collected from these interviews and questionnaires complemented that gathered by the partners in their deskwork and was included in the reports.
The Report on the current situation of Integrated Catchment Management RTD is deliverable D1 of the project and the main result of this WP.
Together with the final deliverable, the following list of results has been achieved by the project.
- Detailed mapping of the socio political and legal framework for the management of water resources in each region and of their current trends, comparing them both with those of other regions and states and to the EU globally, including the analysis of the effect of measures such as the WFD. This task included the following sub-reports:
• Stakeholder Power Analysis. Partners collaborated on the identification of key entities that influence the management of water resources within their specific regions. The subtask leader guided the other partners towards the production of each of the regional Stakeholder Analyses.
• Reports on socio-political framework affected by water catchment management and the WFD. Led by partner 19 (CEMAGREF). Regional reports were prepared by partners from different clusters that were later included as a part of the main report. These reports were aimed at contextualizing the rest of the report. Data on the physical, socio-economical and administrative environment of each region were included in this report.
• Reports on legal framework for water catchment management. Led by partner 3 (FCLNTDA). This subtask was aimed at drafting a basic understanding of water governance in the region. A report addressing current and forthcoming regulations, plans and programmes, key institutional arrangements and public procedures affecting catchment management in each region was prepared and included as part of the main report.
• Reports on challenges and key issues regarding catchment management tools for WFD. Led by partner 5 (UGR). The participating partners prepared reports for the different regions tackling the timing of the transposition of the WFD to national or regional law when applicable and the influence of the WFD on the regulatory and institutional framework of integrated catchment management. A summary of the key challenges, impacts and controversies surrounding the application of catchment management requirements contained in the WFD was also incorporated. The core of each report is a review of current and projected systems, methodologies, models and technological solutions to comply with relevant catchment management requirements contained within the WFD. This report was included in the main report.
• Comparative report of selected countries. Led by partner 5 (UGR). This report is aimed at serving as a base for the future expansion of the NOVIWAM project to further areas and the inclusion of new partners in future activities by identifying regions and countries with similar environments.
- Mapping of the regions technology and knowledge production and transfer systems and their strengths and weaknesses. This task involved carrying out a detailed survey of the existing research capacities of each region, their strengths and weaknesses and a characterisation of the most relevant research topics for the regions researchers. The partners participating in this task produced reports on catchment management RTD for each one of the regions that were included as part of the main report. The internal strength and weaknesses of the catchment management RTD for each region was analysed taking in to account factors such as their main research activities, capabilities, most prestigious researchers and knowledge exchange potential. The reports detail on the application or development of models and other technological tools to aid decision-making in catchment management.
- Mapping of the needs of companies and other end users, particularly SMEs. A detailed characterisation of the companies involved in the various aspects of the management of water resources was carried out, taking into account aspects such as their sizes, association and co-operation trends, internationalization, RTD and Innovation policies. A report on the needs, markets, competitive intelligence and multi-stakeholder interaction for prominent developers of decision support systems for catchment management and successful SMEs working on this field as well as on the limitations of the current DSS from the point of view of end users was prepared by the participating partners.
- Analysis of current trends and developments Integrated Water Resources Management Systems and clustering activities in other regions. An in depth study of the current trends and advances made in the study and design of catchment management tools and decision support systems for catchment management aimed at completing the internal analyses produced in previous tasks and feed the final SWOT analyses in task 1.6. The task also briefly analysed the management of water resources and the possible interest in NOVIWAM in other Southern EU regions and other regions in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. The participating partners produced a report on current international trends in IWRM in other regions that was included in the main report.
- Report on the current situation of Southern Europe Integrated Catchment and River Basin Management Systems (Task leader p3 (FCDLNTDA), the rest of partners contributed to this task by preparing regional SWOT analysis and reviewing and commenting the successive drafts of the reports).
An expert board consisting of 6 independent external experts (one expert from each cluster and another one external to the NOVIWAM clusters) was selected by the partners to validate the methodologies used for the data collection and analysis as well as of the conclusions reached. This board included scientific, business and policy relevant actors. The comments and recommendations from these external experts were taken in to account when finalising the reports.
Based upon the data collected and conclusions reached out of the first Work Package, a strategic report on the deficiencies and risks detected in Integrated Catchment Management’s RTD and the main needs of the actors involved in the area, institutions, researchers and companies was produced. The concrete measures to promote the development and adaptation of these optimal integrated catchment management decision support systems will be set down in the Joint Action Plan.
This task included the preparation of regional SWOT analysis based on the information contained in the reports, the opinions gathered in interviews and questionnaires and the partners’ expertise. The consortium also produced a global SWOT analysis for all the participating regions.
The task also included the preparation of the global report which included the SWOT analysis as well as the reports prepared in previous tasks within the WP.
Work Package 2: Definition of a Joint Action Plan (JAP)
Based upon the results obtained in WP1, WP2 centres on the definition of a Joint Action Plan (JAP). This JAP addresses aspect such as the identification of possible co-operation research areas and their characterisation based on interest, urgency, scientific and technical quality and socio economic and environmental benefits, recommendations on optimal legal and administrative measures to be implemented in the regions, development of tools and practices to be implemented by companies, particularly SMEs and other end users and the establishment of communication and dialogue channels between the actors involve and best means of technology and knowledge diffusion and transfer.
The number and name of the task will precede the description of it, its work and results, as a way to simplify the browsing through WP2 and the following ones:
Task 2.1 - Classification and prioritization of the "needs" to be addressed by the JAP. Based upon the results obtained in WP1, the main weaknesses and threats affecting the involve regions and their different aspects have been selected, as well as the most relevant research topics that should be undertaken to address these risks and weaknesses. To carry out this task, the participating partners have relied on the information provided by the results of WP1 and the feedback provided by stakeholders in the participating regions.
Additionally, to ensure that the proposed actions have a broader impact in the participating regions, the consortium has taken into account the input from other stakeholders (responsible authorities, researchers and companies) through open brainstorming workshops and consultations, as well as from the participant’ expertise and ideas. The JAP consultation sessions took place in Poitiers (France), and in Braga (Portugal).The Poitiers session (held on the 16th February 2011) was organized by the International Office of Water (OIEau) in order to enrich the JAP structure and contents with feedback from stakeholders from the Poitou-Charentes region and with partners that represented all NOVIWAM regions. The session gathered more than 60 stakeholders, covering research centres, governmental and non governmental bodies and businesses specialized in integrated water resources management. The purpose of the consultation was to prioritise the most urgent actions to be implemented in each of the regions.
This resulted on the definition of series of objectives in answer to the issues raised by the SWOT and proposes a series of R&D and innovation actions to achieve these objectives.
Task 2.2 - Definition of specific targets for the JAP and of a timetable for its implementation
The participating partners defined 11 specific objectives (9 Scientific Objectives and 2 Capacity Building Objectives) regarding the necessities previously listed to include in the JAP. At the end of the first reporting period, partners defined the success indicators associated to these targets as well as the planned schedule.
Out of the 11 specific objectives, 2 objectives (namely Bridging Links Among the triple helix actors and improvement of Governance and Stakeholder Capabilities) were considered horizontal and of application when developing any of the scientific objectives of the JAP. In order to ensure that the research and development proposed by the 9 scientific objectives actually take into account the real needs of stakeholders, a working group (consisting on p1, p2, p3, p7 and p11) elaborated a set of guidelines for Bridging Links and Governance Capacitating).
Task 2.3 - Definition of specific actions and tools to be put included in the JAP
During the last reporting period, the participating partners worked on the definition of the specific actions and tools that will be used to achieve the objectives listed in the previous task. Out of this process the consortium proposed 41 actions in correlation with the necessities detected in the SWOT analysis. These actions and tools covered the whole RTD&I process, from basic research to the transfer of the results to be exploited by companies and public authorities and their benefits to citizens (up to here, all the tasks from WP1 and WP2 are simplified in the attached Pdf file with diagrams and photos).
In M27 partners with public responsibilities in Water Resources Management (p1, p7, p10, p14, p17) were involved in the selection of five priority actions of the JAP in order to highlight key research and development issues posed at a regional level. Using a weighing system, the actions selected as priorities by the authorities were assigned with a value
The result was a selection of five priority actions to be developed and promoted by partners. To this end, and as part of activity WP 4.4 in M29 the Consortium (lead by p2 and p3) organized a Workshop in Brussels entitled "Joint Actions addressing Europe's Water Challenges", hosted by the Committee of the Regions, under the umbrella of the Commission’s Green Week satellite events 2012.
As a result, the Workshop brought together 43 representatives from public administrations, policy-making and other relevant stakeholders. During this Workshop, the JAP core findings were presented to the public and the key messages addressed to public administrations, experts and policy-makers. Decision makers participating in the Consortium highlighted the main challenges identified in their respective regions and, researchers proposed specific research actions that could contribute at solving those water management challenges. After the project ending, partners are committed to develop these actions into detailed project proposals and seek implementation opportunities. This approach towards the implementation of the JAP not only ensures the uptake of its results but also facilitates the visualisation of a roadmap towards the adoption of the JAP ideas.
Task 2.4 - Financial planning for the implementation of the JAP, including the analysis of its relevance to the different EU programmes and the optimisation of the synergies existing between them.
At the end of the first reporting period (M18), the leading partner of this task (p2, AAC) together with the rest of participating partners prepared and submitted a financial study for the implementation of the JAP. To do this, the participating partners analyzed the relevant funding sources for the proposed action.
Task 2.5 - Preparation of the JAP and presentation to stakeholders.
A document detailing the JAP was prepared and presented to all the relevant stakeholders both at a regional and European level. The original document and their different updates were made available online as well as promoted in different events and conferences. As explained in section 3.2.3 of this report, the JAP was influential and is still being considered in the strategies of different European and regional organisations and initiatives. There were synergies between this and task 4.4 where an executive summary of the JAP was presented to the Commission and stakeholders.
The Project Co-ordinator transferred the lead on this task to FCLNTDA, whose work was to ensure that the results from the previous tasks were correctly integrated into the JAP. To help achieving this, the FCLNTDA ensured that the necessary communication existed between the different task leaders to ensure their successful outcome.
Work Package 3: Mentoring regions, mutual learning.
This WP is lead by partner 8 (UMINHO). The main purpose of WP3 was to support regional participants to increase their competencies to promote effective regional research-driven clusters and transnational co-operation capabilities. These services involve the exchange of partners between regions, dissemination of best practices, as well as, mentoring activities provided by EU leading regions. At European level, the aim of WP3 is to report to European competent bodies the results of the Project.
Task 3.1 - Workshops: implementation of optimal Integrated Catchment Management Systems through regional clustering. Including best practice exchanges, case studies and inputs from international experts.
The consortium has organized 3 workshops promoting best practice and result exchanges between the involved regions; these workshops has covered scientific and technical aspects as well as optimal public policies and support measures. The aim of the workshops is to promote strategies to improve the collaboration of all agents and to optimize the environment these agents operate in, improving their financial results as well as their competitiveness and employment generation potential, as well as improving their awareness of the global issues affecting the sector and the inclusion of these issues in their decision making process.
• The first workshop “Challenges of River Basin Management Plans” (Porto, December 2nd 2010), was centered on the preparation and implementation of river basin management plans. Basin Authorities and experts from all the participating countries, both project partners and other organizations, participated in this workshop to which 100 professionals assisted.
• The second workshop “Research serving the needs of integrated water resource management” (Poitiers, June 10th 2011) targeted research initiatives that facilitate water resource management and solve problems related to it in the participating countries. Research institutions, authorities and companies from all the participating regions took part in this workshop, both project partners and other guest organizations. 75 professionals of water management related sectors attended this workshop.
• The last workshop “Water Resources Management – Adaptation to Climate Changes” took place in Limassol, Cyprus, on 15 of October 2012 and had the title. It aimed to address critical issues related to the effect of climate change on the water resources. The workshop was supported by STREAM project and it was broadcasted live in STREAM’s website. The workshop was divided in 7 sections and 16 speakers participated, 7 of which were from NOVIWAM consortium. The participation on the workshop was open to all the interested stakeholders and it was free of charge. In total, the workshop had 55 participants. The number of participants from NOVIWAM consortium was 18, being 7 of them speakers.
The number of participants outside NOVIWAM consortium was 37. Nine of them contributed with a presentation. The participants outside the NOVIWAM consortium came from private companies, public authorities, private and public universities and research centres from Cyprus regarding water management.
The aim of the workshops has been to promote strategies to improve the collaboration of all agents and to optimize the environment these agents operate in, improving their financial results as well as their competitiveness and employment generation potential, as well as improving their awareness of the global issues affecting the sector and the inclusion of these issues in their decision making process.
Task 3.2 - Staff Exchanges
Staff exchanges between the different participants are included in the project. These exchanges aim at the dissemination of best practices and tools, identifying and incorporating them into the working practices of other project partners and finding common interests between different participants.
A total of 57 staff exchanges took place during the project based on partner´s capacitation, areas of expertise and interests.
Task 3.3 - In-house and external training activities to improve concrete capacities needed for the implementation of the JAP
The main goal of this activity was to improve concrete capacities needed for the implementation of the JAP. Some of the objectives included in the JAP involved a need for some of the partners to acquire certain knowledge or capacities. Partners were invited to identify their needs under the scope of JAP. Based on that, three training sessions were organized in Limoges (FR), Córdoba (SP) and Tirana (AL).
The first training activity was organized by p4 (UCO) and p5 (UGR) with the support of p3 (FCLNTDA) and p8 (UMinho). The activity entitled “Towards the implementation of the Join Action Plan” was held in Cordoba on the 16th November 2011. Its main objective was to improve the capacities needed for the implementation of the JAP.
In total, the training activity had 30 participants, 24 of which were members of the NOVIWAM project, and 6 PhD students of the Universities of Córdoba and Granada. Participants from the “triple helix” (Central and regional administration, universities and/or research centers and companies) had a significant participation on the training activity.
The training seminar was designed to disseminate and promote the best practices, case studies developed by each participating region in NOVIWAM. Regional Authorities were the main target audience, in order to increase their competencies and to promote effective regional research-driven clusters as well as transnational cooperation capabilities.
The second training seminar took place in Limoges on 27-29 March 2012. It was organized by partner 11 (OIEAU) in order to establish a connection between NOVIWAM partners and the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) projects managed by International Office for Water.
A day was dedicated to the training of the participants in link with the implementation of the Joint Action Plan (JAP). In addition, p11 offered a visit tour of the National Training Centre and made a presentation of its national and international activities.
The last NOVIWAM training activity was organized by the Albanian cluster (p13, p14, p15) with the support of p3 (FCLNTDA). It took place in Tirana (Albania) on 9-10 November, 2012. It was organized in the frame of the 2012 Annual Conference and Exhibition: "What is water worth to you?. Its main objective was to strengthen the institutional capacities within Albanian institutions. The training activity titled “To improve policy and capacity needs for IWRM” was planned for two days. In the first day, the participants had the possibility to join a roundtable, to discuss themes highly important for the Integrated Water Management sector in Albania.
The training covered scientific and technical aspects as well as the best public policies and support measures. The final goal of the training was to help regional clusters in the implementation of optimal Integrated Water Resource Management. This training had a representative of an important group of stakeholders on the Integrated Water Resources Management, which contributed towards a more objective and functional assessment of the sector management, as well as the capacities which the sector comprises.
Task 3.4 - Creation of a remote advisory facility or helpdesk. Both as a direct mailing system and as an online discussion and debate forum.
In this activity, lead by Simbiente, a remote advisory facility was achieved through the development of a specific designed collaborative platform, designed as a workspace in open source technology and including the following main features:
• Access profile according to the role of users involved;
• NOVIwiki: feature to describe and exchange case studies, practices and experiences;
• Helpdesk specific-designed for the partners and for the general public to submit scientific and technical queries about water management and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), to be answered by a board of nominated experts and/or by the partners. This feature can be organized by relevant topics and the board can include experts for the main water management issues (e.g. marine water, surface water, groundwater, ecological quality, economic analysis, information systems, public participation,…)
The platform has been working under different settings depending on the period of the project, in line with the technical possibilities and the demands of project partners. In every case, it was totally independent from the online tools that OIEAU provided for collaborative work and internal communication of the partners. For example, remote advisory facility started being independent from any other tool or website associated to NOVIWAM, and all partners were accessing directly to the platform using the credentials provided by the task leader. Then, OIEAU made available the “public area” of the platform (in the section “Ask a Water Expert” within the NOVIWAM website (www.noviwam.eu). The last step was to integrate it in a reserved area on the project website, allowing online private and public discussions (according to the profile of the subjects), among the NOVIWAM partners and between them and other stakeholders.
The architecture of the platform has been completed in July 2011 and it is currently integrated into the project website. It was also prepared an “user manual” (“NOVIWAM Helpdesk in a Nutshell – Quick Guide”) and a complementary video.
Simbiente led this activity and has invested a larger effort in it than was foreseen in the original Annex I, the partner has redistributed its efforts accordingly. The lead partner designed the platform counting with the inputs and validation of the rest of partners participating in the task. During the second project meeting in Seville in June 2010, the partners decided to take advantage from the synergies between this task and task 4.3 “Support to the internationalisation of the activities of researchers and innovative companies (advice on IPR and contractual issues)” and make use of the platform for the execution of this task also, contracting for that purpose the services of Chimp –Specialized Communication, Ltd.
Task 3.5 - Setting up of a scientific advisory commission and a policy evaluation group.
Two commissions were proposed aiming to assist the researchers specialised in the related disciplines and analyze the policies being implemented and new policies and actions.
Under this task, it was also established that this commissions have the mission of perpetuate NOVIWAM beyond the end of the project, as well as give support to triple helix actors in water related projects and contribute to the development of regional water research driven clusters. In that regard the majority of the persons in the commissions integrated the list of experts for the Helpdesk developed in task WP3.4.
Besides, it was also encouraged the expression of partners commitment for Action Groups under the EIP-Water. In that regard, each partner submitted its personal interest in formation of an Action group and a joint candidature was submitted by p3 (FCLNTDA). This candidacy did not win, possibly due to the lack of clear financial back-up, but another more specific proposal allowed a group of NOVIWAM partners to have an Action Groups under the EIP-Water.
Work Package 4: Measures towards the implementation of the joint action plan
This WP includes measures that will facilitate the execution and implementation of the JAP. The scope of the project does not cover the implementation of the JAP but the activities contained in this WP facilitated this implementation both by improving the capacities of the actors involved as well as gaining the support of the relevant authorities and decision makers.
These objectives go one step further in the sense that they allow for the possible improvement of the JAP and the inclusion of further regions into its activities.
Task 4.1 - Development of mutual clusters ambassador scheme
Summary: the purpose of this Activity was to appoint representatives from each NOVIWAM cluster to attend events held by clusters from other regions that are not represented within the project consortium and to explore further collaboration schemes between the different clusters.
Activities carried out and Specific Results; So as to get this goal, the consortium has carried out the following:
- A “Common List of International Events related to Integrated Water Management of Interest to the NOVIWAM Project”; prioritized by the partners (dated 2 September 2011, Report 4.1.2 COMMON EVENTS PRIORITIZED BY PARTNERS 02.09.11 DEF)
- Partners attending relevant international events of interest to the consortium. The events were presented during the NOVIWAM consortium meetings so the consortium can coordinate their assistance to a selection of strategic events. During the event/conference acted as NOVIWAM ambassadors by presenting the NOVIWAM project and detected cooperation opportunities as well as the relevant outcomes and contacts deriving from their participation:
• CENTA attended the “IWA-World Congress on Climate, Water and Energy” in Dublin, Ireland, on May 2012
• CUT participated to the “3th IWA-RHWM Conference & Exhibition” in Goseong, Korea on the 20-24 May 2012
• ATLANTIS presented NOVIWAM during the “Week of Innovative Regions WIRE 2012 Conference” dedicated to smart regional development based on knowledge and innovation; organised in Krakow, Poland on 4-5 June 2012
Additionally, some partners have acted as ambassadors presenting and generating cooperation opportunities for the Project on an “ad hoc” basis, namely:
• INRA presented the NOVIWAM project to the visiting Professor (Ms. Catarina Roseta Palma) from the Department of Economics of Lisbon University Institute to INRA, during an exchange of researches in water management domain.
• The Andalusian Regional Office in Brussels presented the project on behalf of the Andalusian partners of NOVIWAM at the POTENTIAL ERRIN WATER Working Group meeting in Brussels organised by the Aragon Region on 26 Sep 2012. It searched for synergies between the EIP water, current open calls from DG Environment, the European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) and several EU projects.
Task 4.2 - Co-operation with the European Cluster Observatory
Summary: the aim of this activity was to (A) establish a communication with the European Cluster Observatory and keeping them updated on the project and project results, this includes presenting the JAP to the Cluster Observatory and welcoming their comments on it; (B) the consortium was to also collaborate with the Eco-innovation Platform.
A) One of the purposes of this task was presenting the JAP to the European Cluster Observatory and receiving their comments, however, the consortium had to redesign its approach. Despite of this, the registration of the NOVIWAM clusters in European cluster-related websites, as the one of the European Cluster Observatory, was promoted. Different contacts were made with the organisations in charge of some of those platforms and websites. For example, Andrea Radinger and Christoph Reiss-Schmidt from the European Cluster Collaboration Platform were contacted in May of 2012; after that, it was thought that clusters remaining linked after the end of the project would be registered in their system.
After several inquiries about which organisation was the most suitable to provide some technical feedback for the JAP, it was considered that INNOWATER -a sectorial partnership belonging to the Eco-innovation Platform and its Coordinator, the European Water Partnership (EWP), was the right organisation to contact due to its specific focus on the water domain, by providing support to water-users in evaluating their water-use, identifying their challenges and bringing them into contact with innovative technologies.
Although we requested specific feedback from the EWP/INNOWATER for the Joint Action Plan, we were not able to receive such feedback before submitting the JAP to the EC. Nevertheless EWP/INNOWATER sent feedback on the JAP by January 2013, which was integrated in the text since the JAP is going to be maintained by the consortium as a living document even beyond the project duration. EWP/INNOWATER has pro-actively cooperated with the NOVIWAM project in additional activities.
Activities carried out and Specific Results; EWP/INNOWATER has pro-actively cooperated with the NOVIWAM project by means of:
- Presenting the European Water Partnership and INNOWATER during the NOVIWAM Final Conference in Seville (21 January 2013) within the Session “Linking users and generators of water RTD&I”, their presentation’s name was “EWP. INNOWATER, The Netherlands INNOWATER: Facilitating market access of water innovations”.
- Participating at the Networking Session organized after the NOVIWAM Conference addressed to relevant IWMR EU-funded initiatives: “Facilitating linkages between research and communication European initiatives”, in Seville on the 22nd January 2013
- Elaboration of a background dossier with information on the European Cluster Observatory to brief partners as well as information about European Water Partnership and INNOWATER
To approach and present the project goals as well as the Joint Action Plan to EWP/INNOWATER, the consortium drafted some background documents in order to make a proper introduction to our contact persons -Mr. Harro Riedstra and Ms. Selma Hilgersom:
- Introductory letter to explain the EWP/INNOWATER our request for feedback on the JAP.
- A briefing about NOVIWAM and introduce its objectives and key goals to be sent to the EWP/INNOWATER
B) On the aim to collaborate with ECO-INNOVATION, by seeking participation within the CIP Programme Committee via the National Contact Points, the consortium made an effort to get this goal, but after interacting with the National Contact Points, decided to revise the application of this action taking account the changes occurred in CIP Programme due to its insertion in H2020.
As result of this situation, the consortium decided to drop this specific action due to the changes to the CIP Programme introduced by Horizon 2020, which implied that 2013 will see the last calls of the CIP programmes before its integration with the FP in Horizon 2020.
However, the Eco-innovation Platform contains INNOWATER as a sectorial partnership that provides support to water-users in evaluating their water-use; identify their challenges and bringing them into contact with innovative technologies to address these challenges. The Coordinator of INNOWATER is the European Water Partnership, therefore, the actions developed with INNOWATER /EWP were relevant for both pieces of this activity.
Task 4.3 - Support to the internationalisation of the activities of researchers & innovative companies
Summary: the aim of this activity was (A) the active promotion of the internationalisation of the activities carried out by companies and researchers from participating regions, both within the JAP objectives and in other issues; (B) the creation of help-lines and policies, and (C) the organisation of international matchmaking events within the water sector, coinciding with other workshops and conferences; to promote international cooperation between entities from commercial agreements to collaborative RTD&I projects and exploiting synergies existing with existing initiatives such as ENN.
A) On the active promotion of the internationalisation of the activities carried out by companies and researchers from participating regions:
The purpose of this WP was defining measures applicable by regional authorities to foster internationalisation of researchers and innovative companies’ activities within the JAP objectives and in other issues.
The partners wrote the Report “Measures applicable by regional authorities to foster internationalisation of researchers and innovative companies’ activities” gathering a set of identified measures including some examples of good practices taken from existing initiatives, as well a set of recommendations on how to implement the measures that could serve to help all interested entities giving orientations on how to create a favorable framework for internationalisation
B) Creation of a helpline to advice on IPR and contractual issues:
The purpose was to create a consultative platform (NOVIWAM Helpdesk) where any external user could post questions about water management or intellectual property rights, which were to be sent to our “international board of experts” and then responded to that person.
As for the queries related to Intellectual Property Rights, since the consortium did not have the necessary legal knowledge and expertise, it was agreed to derive such questions to the European IPR Helpdesk.
Activities carried out and Specific Results:
- The consortium created a “Helpline” to advice on IPR and contractual issues inside the NOVIWAM website, within the remote advisory facility
- A NOVIWAM Helpdesk Platform Protocol for the management of the Platform was prepared
- A list of NOVIWAM Experts for the “Water Helpdesk” was designated among the project partners for each specific water-related matter was created, this person responded to technical and scientific external queries (also within the document; NOVIWAM Helpdesk Platform - Governance Model)
- Equally a Quick Guide to help the rest of the partners to Manage the Platform was elaborated and presented
- As results of these activities the consortium has got a helpline to advice water research-related, contractual issues and also regarding IPR.
C) On the Organisation of International Matchmaking Events for the sector -coinciding with the programmed workshops and conferences:
With the sector-driven “Matchmaking Events” it was intended to promote international cooperation between entities from commercial agreements to collaborative RTD&I projects, exploiting synergies existing with existing networks such as ENN.
The consortium, through its partner the AAC -member of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN)-, organized on the 21st of January of 2013 (1st day of the Final NOVIWAM Conference) a parallel Brokerage Event on Novel Integrated Water Management Systems, focused on one-to-one pre-scheduled meetings (http://www.b2match.eu/noviwam).
The Brokerage Event sought to enhance opportunities and facilitate collaboration opportunities between different actors (i.e.: Research & Development, Technical Co-operation, Joint Venture Agreement, Manufacturing Agreement, License Agreement, Commercial Agreement, EU-funded Project) involved in the water, agriculture and RTD&I sectors
Consequently, with this activity the consortium obtained the following result:
• 50 individual participants actively participating in the Brokerage Event
• A total of 104 bilateral meetings took place during the one-day event;
o 60 bilateral meetings during the morning session
o 54 bilateral meetings in the afternoon session
For the organisation of the Brokerage Event various preparatory documents were elaborated, namely: a) the official Brochure of the Brokerage Event co organised with the EEN, b) a Catalogue identifying all participants and their core interests and c) a Detailed Agenda containing all the bilateral meetings that were to take place among all 71 participants registered to the Brokerage.
Task 4.4.- Guidance Reports to regional authorities, researchers & companies
Summary: the tasks were to (A) have specifically tailored “Guidance Reports” attending to the different typologies of the involved agents, researchers, companies involved in water resource management and regional authorities, and (B) such report is to be presented at relevant workshops and events and will be actively promoted by all consortium members.
DELIVERABLE 6 of the NOVIWAM Project (as described in Annex 1 of the Grant Agreement) under the name of “Guidance Reports or handbooks for authorities, researchers and companies” was at the core of task 4.4.
A) Specifically tailored “guidance reports”; the purpose of activity was to have a Guidance Report addressed to regional authorities, researchers & companies, in order to present the basics of the NOVIWAM project but what’s more, the main conclusions derived from the Joint Action Plan.
Activities carried out and Specific Results:
- The project partners drafted a document that was entitled “Joint Action Plan - Executive Summary”; where the basics of the NOVIWAM project, the main conclusions derived from the Joint Action Plan, as well as some selected JAP Actions of specific interest to the public authorities were contained.
- The Guidance Report sought to communicate the central findings of the Joint Action Plan with a particular focus on the public administration representatives and policy-makers. Representatives of the different public bodies participating in NOVIWAM were consulted about the preferred contents for the “guidance reports” and their answers leaded to the design of such a summary of the project, the JAP and concrete examples of the applicability of the JAP. The latter was addressed through the design of detailed research initiatives in line with the priorities of the JAP.
- The 5 priority research actions described in the “Executive Summary” were selected and prioritised by the consortium authorities from a pool of ideas generated within the consortium itself as indicated in WP2.3.
- In order to ensure that the “Executive Summary” was clear, concise and reached its target audience, we were able to obtain external feedback from experts outside the NOVIWAM project, namely from:
• Mrs. Nora van Cauwenbergh; pertaining to the UNESCO IHE, Institute for Water Education (The Netherlands)
• Mr. Peter Janknecht; from the Stadtwerke Düsseldorf (Germany)
• Mr. Rafael Rodríguez-Clemente; Senior Researcher of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (Spain) and National Representative for Spain of the RoK and REGPOT Programmes
• Mrs. Rosa M. Muñoz; from the Centro Tecnológico Andaluz de Diseño, SURGENIA (Spain)
B) The Report is to be presented at relevant workshops and events and was actively promoted by all consortium members, even after the formal closure of the project at the end of 2013.
The main task or subtask of this action was organising a specific workshop or event with a European scope, in order to communicate the findings of the Executive Summary of the Joint Action Plan (JAP). As a result, the consortium presented a specific Workshop in Brussels on the 12th of June 2012 entitled "Joint Actions addressing Europe's Water Challenges", hosted by the Committee of the Regions, under the umbrella of the Commission’s Green Week satellite events 2012.
This Workshop brought together 43 representatives from public administration representatives, policy-makers and relevant stakeholders.
During this Workshop, the JAP core findings were presented to the public and the key messages addressed to public administrations, experts and policy-makers. Our aim was to identify obstacles and success factors of integrated water management in Regional clusters and to provide solutions to regional and EU policy makers and public authorities, thus, researchers from the Consortium proposed specific research actions that could contribute at solving some of those water management challenges.
In terms of dissemination of the Deliverable 6: a) hard copies of the “Executive Summary” were distributed during the Workshop, b) hard copies of this report were sent by the AAC to the project partners for distribution to their regional national stakeholders, c) the report is publicly available in electronic format on the NOVIWAM website (www.noviwam.eu/join-action-plan.html and http://centa.es/noviwam) d) the report was disseminated during the final stages of the project and throughout 2013.
Task 4.5 - Exploitation of the joint research capacities & collaboration possibilities (in
future co-operation projects) serving to the implementation of the JAP
Summary: the aim of this activity has been to guarantee further collaboration between the partners and other organisations from the involved regions as a mean to further develop the objectives contained in the JAP.
The Consortium decided to achieve these by (A) securing follow up and participation by the NOVIWAM partners in related EU-research projects and initiatives and (B) organise an EU Workshop on Building Capacities on Bridging and Governance on the thematic areas of the JAP.
A) To secure a follow up and participation by the NOVIWAM partners in related EU-research projects a series of activities were carried out:
- Starting as of July of 2011, within the Agenda of Consortium Workshops the partners included an item to present up-to-date information on potential relevant programs and calls of interest to the NOVIWAM Consortium, with a view to facilitate and foster participation in new proposals by the partners.
- Along this line, during the Brussels Consortium meeting (12th June 2012), a fully dedicated activity was organised a “Round Table on Public Funding”, to report on relevant programs and calls of interest to the Consortium and to foster participation by the partners.
- There never was a list of partners and proposal coming out of NOVIWAM since privacy on this matter is a very strategic element. However, a series of co-operative RTD&I initiatives were informally reported and jointly developed by different groups of partners, and some were also submitted to funding calls. This is one of the reasons that encouraged partners to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to continue working under roof of NOVIWAM after the termination of the project. A few articles of the MoU provide the adequate framework to ensure the partners commitment on fostering their collaboration on international RTD&I projects.
B) EU Workshop on Building Capacities on Bridging and Governance:
To get this goal the consortium organized Session 2 titled “Linking users and generators of water RTD&I” on the afternoon of the 21st of January 2013, during the Final NOVIWAM Conference in Seville.
The Session dealt with water-related projects trying to bridge knowledge production, management and communication among stakeholders, gathering the experiences of the triple helix actors -authorities, researchers and businesses.
Task 4.6 - Exploration of possibilities of including further regions into the JAP & creating contacts with them
Summary: the intent of this specific activity is to foster the possibilities of exporting the JAP to other regions of the South of Europe and Mediterranean and Black Sea regions and including third regions into the JAP objectives and undertaking specific actions within them. DELIVERABLE 7 (as described in Annex 1 of the Grant Agreement) “Prospective Report for the Addition of other Regions to the JAP” was at the core of this task.
In order to increase the projection and collaboration possibilities, the consortium partners prepared an information folder containing Fact Sheets of the NOVIWAM Consortium integrating partners, wherein the individual profiles, capacities and areas of knowledge of each partner was presented.
This information folder was edited and distributed to the participants of the Brussels Workshop “Joint Actions addressing Europe's Water Challenges", on the website of the NOVIWAM final Conference and disseminated among the partners (See: www.juntadeandalucia.es/medioambiente/site/portalweb/menuitem.7e1cf46ddf59bb227a9ebe205510e1ca/?vgnextoid=5827d0e63794b310VgnVCM1000001325e50aRCRD&vgnextchannel=612d2fbb4730b310VgnVCM2000000624e50aRCRD&lr=lang_es).
In composing Deliverable 7 “Prospective Report for the Continuation of the NOVIWAM Cluster and the Addition of New Regions to the JAP” the partners identified suitable regions to be invited to cooperate with the NOVIWAM project and promoted the implementation of the Joint Research Action Plan, seeking the participation of water research-driven clusters from Southern Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and the Black Sea Area.
Particularly, the promotion of the JAP was actually facilitated via:
• The definition of the JAP expansion and internationalisation strategy, seeking compatibility and possible synergies, and using previous documents (mainly from WP1, SWOTs and JAP) and the individual profiles of each partner
• Establishing contacts with suitable organisations
• Elaborating “Prospective Regions Analysis” of the interested clusters from Southern Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and the Black Sea Area
• After the analysis of the information and contacts made, further conversations were established with 5 clusters with some potential to adopt and develop the JAP:
- Thessaly region, Greece.
- Aegean and Peloponnese region, Greece
- Galicia region, Spain
- Bulgaria
- North Morocco, Morocco
Those 5 interested triple helix clusters submitted the following documents to allow the detailed assessment of the extension of NOVIWAM to their regions:
- Country/region report on describing key water issues and research needs in Integrated Water Management.
- Organisation profile
- Research capacities, exploitation or uptake potential
Further to the duties derived from the NOVIWAM Project implementation – signed with the European Commission-, a majority of the Consortium Partners have expressed their interest to continue such collaboration once the NOVIWAM contract is over. In order to articulate this new cooperation, the consortium has elaborated a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which presents the strategy and prospects for future collaboration, inviting all NOWIWAM partners and other relevant Regions to join this novel initiative.
Task 4.7- Awareness rising on the needs/ possibilities detected at a regional & EU level
Summary: in doing this activity, the project members were to define a specific “communication plan” adapted to its target audience and on the basis of the high-priorities identified in the JAP findings and tailored to communicate and disseminate the various activities carried out to implement the JAP.
Activities carried out and Specific Results:
- Elaboration of a NOVIWAM Leaflet specific on the JAP.
- The Brussels Workshop “Joint Actions addressing Europe's Water Challenges" was labeled and included as a “Green Week Satellite Event 2012”.
- Dissemination of the “JAP – Executive Summary” document has been carried out by all NOVIWAM partners to its A contacts by electronic mailing, hard-copies of the report has been distributed to the Regions Stakeholders and in the NOVIWAM Final Conference, the electronic version of the Executive Summary has been published on the project Website (http://www.noviwam.eu/results.html)
Work Package 5: Dissemination and communication activities
Partner 12 (OIEAU) leads the communication and dissemination WP with the guidance and a strong support provided by partner 3 (FCLNTDA). The dissemination of the activities carried out within the project and the obtained results aims at reaching both stakeholders elsewhere and the general public. To achieve this, a communication plan was designed by Partner 12 in order to involve all partners into a common dissemination and communication strategy.
Task 5.1 - Publication of the results of the project on a website that includes sections to gather feedback and recommendations from stakeholders and the general public and a virtual market place
The website www.noviwam.eu was initially designed by Partner 18 (ACC) with the objective to be fed by the partners for the national language pages. The budget allocated to the activities of website update was soon exceeded. Therefore both, the contents and the structure of the website remained outdated. Consequently, Partner 11 (OIEAU) in close collaboration with Partner 3 (FCLNTDA) redesigned the website to a more attractive and updated version, unifying its format with the format of the digital version of the project digital Executive Summary (see http://centa.es/noviwam/). In M36 the website is finalized and updated. It provides initial access into English pages, except the section “NOVIWAM in brief” and “the final event Newsletter” that are translated to the language of all participants.
Regarding the internal collaborative space, After a few trial months, and due to the difficulties found by some partners in accessing and managing the initial online collaborative space, Partner 11 (OIEAU) implemented a new online collaborative space the online collaborative space for the project using the software tool “OpenKm”. All partners received individual access to this collaborative space that served as a channel for the exchange of documentation between partners. All partners agreed on that the new tool was more functional and user friendly. The tool has been kept beyond the end of the project on January 2013.
Task 5.2 - Presentations of the developments achieved in each stage of the project through their presentation at European and international events
The activities included in this task allow the project partners to present the project and the activities carried out and results obtained at each of its stages at the relevant international forums and events they have access to.
Task 5.3 & 5.4 - Co-ordinated communication plan for the dissemination of results through scientific papers, mass media, newsletters and mass media
The first step in this task was the development of a communication plan which was lead by OIEAU and to which the rest of partners contributed. This communication plan contained a series of actions and objectives as well as instruments to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions.
The participating organisations have posted information on the project, news items and press releases on their websites. Also, the partners have informed the local press in each of the participating regions about the development of the project and related events, and therefore there has been a broad number of media releases with references to the project in the different languages (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Greek and Albanian).
In order to contribute with the dissemination of the project results, p3 (FCNTDA) drafted a document entitled “Joint Action Plan - Executive Summary”; where the basics of the NOVIWAM project, the main conclusions derived from the Joint Action Plan, as well as some selected JAP Actions of specific interest to the public authorities were contained, A digital version of the Executive Summary was hosted in a microsite called http://centa.es/noviwam/ and used for results dissemination by all partners. This sought to communicate the central findings of the Joint Action Plan with a particular focus on the public administration representatives and policy-makers.
Task 5.5 - International conference to present the JAP and results of the project.
The NOVIWAM Conference, titled “Connecting authorities, researchers and businesses on water management RTD&I”, took place 21st to 22nd January, 2013 in Seville, Spain. Organized by three Andalusian project partners (p1, p2 and p3), with advice and support of members from the NOVIWAM Consortium, the Conference served as a noteworthy opportunity for professionals from the water sector in southern European Union to share experiences, and make contributions to encouraging the joint collaboration between water authorities, academia and the business sector.
The morning session of the first day of the Conference (21st of January 2013) was based around the structure of Joint Action Plan (JAP) in which RTD&I water challenges in line with JAP objectives were discussed. Each of the five NOVIWAM clusters invited appropriate speakers, providing evidences of the advances of those fields, but also proving the potential for RTD&I in the participant regions.
The afternoon session focused on water-related projects trying to bridge knowledge production, management and communication among stakeholders, gathering the experiences of the triple helix actors, as already mentioned in the description of Task 4.5.
Presentations and a round table addressed during the second day the interfaces of knowledge production on water with policy, management, RTD&I and EU funding.
In summary, the programme of the conference included eighteen oral communications presented in 4 different sessions:
1st session: Strategic RTD&I topics on water: Session on NOVIWAM objectives
2nd session: Linking users and generators of water RTD&I
3rd session: Water policy and RTD&I in the European Union
4th session: Building Strategic agendas on water RTD&I
The conference also included a parallel Brokerage Event on the 21st of January aiming to enhance opportunities to explore and find partners, mainly from the water and agriculture sector to promote future collaboration and projects. It also was part of Task 4.3.
A few off-programme sessions followed the last day of the NOVIWAM Final Conference Connecting authorities, researchers and businesses on water management RTD&I. They consisted on a networking lunch, a networking session called “Facilitating linkages between research and communication European initiatives” and the presentation of a “Memorandum of Understanding” for regional clusters willing to stay connected with the NOVIWAM consortium. All conference speakers, NOVIWAM partners and some additional guests were invited to these sessions.
Potential Impact:
It was within the scope of NOVIWAM to facilitate the implementation of the results of the Joint Action Plan both by improving the capacities of the actors involved as well as gaining the support of the relevant authorities and decision makers. As a consequence, the JAP and other outputs from the project have produced an influence on the water and related sectors, particularly regarding the way to target RTD&I priorities. Little of its foreground is directly exploitable, although it is designed to triggers profitable RTD&I actions indirectly. The main results already described in the previous section can hardly be described without connecting them to their impacts. Therefore, in the previous and longer section, many details about the potential impact of the foreground are explicit. Here in this section, they will be review and some expanded, being of special relevance the impacts and activities that developed after out of the project duration. The continuation of some of the project activities via the signature of a MoU is therefore central to this section.
The NOVIWAM Cluster (constituted after the signature of the MoU) intends to continue working together and expanding beyond the end of the project in early 2013. The cluster will to ensure that all NOVIWAM products reach their full impact though various means, including the development of new projects to build upon the obtained results. In this context, a series of measures are introduced by NOVIWAM Cluster to ensure a high impact for its activities and its proposed actions.
The NOVIWAM cluster will give especial attention to the exploitation of the results of the project, both in quantitative – making sure that the results reach the maximum number of people – and in qualitative – ensuring that they reaches the people to who it is of more interest and to maximize the impact on its target groups. The responsible for exploiting the foreground are all members of the NOVIWAM cluster.
During the 36 months of duration of the project goals and the dissemination of its results has been achieved through a series of actions:
• SWOT Analysis for the 5 regions and a comprehensive SWOT analysis gathering the circumstances of the 5 regions
• Report on the current situation of Southern Europe Integrated Catchment Management Systems at a Regional Cluster level
• NOVIWAM Methodology for the characterisation of the necessities of the regions
• Joint Action Plan (JAP) and its Executive summary (paper, digital and online versions) to guide stakeholders on R&T collaboration
• Study of the financial perspectives for the implementation on the JAP and its relevance to European Programmes and funding schemes
• Organisation of 3 thematic workshops (in December 2010, June 2011 and October 2012) to facilitate capacity building of project partners and other stakeholders towards the implementation of the JAP.
• 57 staff exchanges took place during the project based on partner´s capacitation, areas of expertise and interests
• 3 internal training modules (November 2011, March 2012 and November 2012)
• Presentations of the project outputs at related international conferences.
• Presentation to potential project collaborators and presence in the European Enterprise and other local networks in order to spread the knowledge towards their members.
• Publications in scientific journals throughout the project
• Actively contacting relevant stakeholders in new regions and exploring further collaborations, using the guidelines of a previous Prospective study.
• Development and presentation of the guidance reports to regional authorities, researchers and companies, to disseminate the challenges identified by the project and to promote for joint actions to address those challenges.
• Development and dissemination of project website, helpdesk, posters, power point presentations, leaflets, press releases, etc.
• Organisation of a final Conference, where researchers, authorities, business and other stakeholders joined to share knowledge and good practices in the field. Besides, NOVIWAM methodology, results and regional case studies were disseminated.
The project achieved successfully all its objectives, making NOVIWAM a respected brand name within the European scene of water RTD&I. NOVIWAM Final Conference was a proof of its large capacity of influence and its strong connections with many innovative initiatives (e.g. some NOVIWAM partners are integrated in an Action Group of the EIP-Water). NOVIWAM did not only benefit the regions and partners involved, but it became a driver of social innovation in the water sector, promoting novel ways of prioritising, developing and promoting RTD&I in the water and related sectors.
Regarding the NOVIWAM Final Conference, over 160 people from 8 different countries met at the NOVIWAM Conference. The profile of the attendee’s varied from regulators, researchers, consultants and other groups of interest, such as associations of irrigators, students, technology platforms and other members of the society.
Number and nationalities of assistants to the NOVIWAM final Conference
Profile of the assistants to the NOVIWAM Final Conference
It is noteworthy mentioning that the NOVIWAM Conference coincided with the snow storms that caused the cancelation of most of the flights in different European airports within United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, etc. The extreme meteorological conditions caused therefore the withdrawal of some speakers and assistants.
The one-hour networking session “Facilitating linkages between research and communication European initiatives” was addressed to create discussion between the NOVIWAM Consortium and representatives from EU projects/initiatives with possible synergies between themselves and the NOVIWAM project. All assistants to the session were encouraged to participate.
Returning to the activities after the end of the project, the exploitation of the project results is and has been based in:
1. Update and dissemination of the NOVIWAM project website.
Partners will ensure that the NOVIWAM project website gathers all milestones and achievements of the NOVIWAM cluster after the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding.
2. Exploitation of the remote advisory facility or helpdesk
Both as a direct mailing system and as an online discussion and debate forum, the online forum will be open to discuss issues affecting both the project and its scope. A remote helpdesk was created to answer the queries of the members in which different experts have been selected to answer the incoming queries on property rights or water. The users are able to share case-studies and choose which posts they want to be publicly available in a simplified version of the helpdesk embedded in the project website.
3. Monitoring the impact of the International Brokerage Event organised in Seville
The brokerage co-organised by CESEAND and NOVIWAM in Seville, aimed to promote the international cooperation between entities at all levels, from simple commercial agreements to collaborative RTD projects, exploiting synergies existing between NOVIWAM and initiatives such as the Enterprise Europe Network. The months after the project ending were essential for the monitoring and evaluation of the real impact of this activity. Consequently, with this activity the consortium obtained the following result:
• 50 individual participants actively participating in the Brokerage Event
• A total of 104 bilateral meetings took place during the one-day event;
• 60 bilateral meetings during the morning session
• 54 bilateral meetings in the afternoon session
4. Consolidation of the NOVIWAM Cluster through the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
The NOVIWAM Cluster is to further develop and build on the outputs and lessons brought about by the NOVIWAM Project until early 2013. Some specific and scientific objectives evolved during the three years of the Project, following an adaptive project management style. Hence, in the current stage of the partnership, the essential objectives of the NOVIWAM Cluster are to:
- Promote, disseminate and undertake research within the water management domain and related sectors, acting as a wide research-driven “Cluster of clusters” or “Hypercluster”.
- As the partnership structure is grounded on the triple helix concept, the Cluster shall strongly promote the inter-relation and cooperation between the triple helix actors: public authorities, business and research entities.
- Promote RTD&I and capacity building activities in key fields of interest for the represented Regions, as identified in the NOVIWAM JAP; the JAP shall be considered a living document to be adapted to the priorities of the Members.
- Further new water-related research, innovation and technological development activities at European level, whilst providing enhanced opportunities for access to EU-funded research projects to its Members.
- Ensure a stronger international presence, visibility and profiling of the Cluster as well as of the activities undertaken by its individual Members.
- Strengthen the positioning of the Cluster and its Members interests in the definition of research, innovation, strategic and political agendas.
- Improve access for its partnering organisations to privileged water-management expertise and know-how.
- Reinforce a long term strategic alliance with European organisations holding a common research agenda.
- Increase international “networking opportunities” for the Cluster Members.
- Provide its Members with relevant water-management information, data, international conferences and events and monitoring of research opportunities.
Signing the MoU allows partners to continue the benefit from mentoring and networking activities to promote the implementation of some of the actions of the JAP, broadening the opportunities of project partners and other regional stakeholders to participate in further RTD and innovation European Co-operative projects.
5. Exploitation of the NOVIWAM partnership joint research capacities and exploration on collaboration possibilities in future transnational co-operation projects serving to the implementation of the JAP
The project results confirm the similarity of the IWRM related problems and necessities faced by very heterogeneous regions. The potential of the triple helix approach to face those problems also became evident straight from the beginning. Therefore, the potential impact of the outputs of the NOVIWAM project, and specifically of the Joint Action Plan are not exclusive to the involved regions but are susceptible of being adapted and implemented elsewhere. Eventually, the main goal is to consolidate a wide research-driven network of clusters on IWRM beyond 2013. It increased its potential to push knowledge-based economic development in the participants regions as well as to help dealing with some of the most pressing technical and institutional challenges on the water sector.
Regarding the NOVIWAM website, it will remain online after the end of the project and the partners will be in charge of updating it with the milestones achieved after signature of the MoU, this will ensure the sustainability of the projects´s foreground.
The consortium aims a disseminating the project results by making them available not only through the project’s website but also through the partner’s own websites and other networks where partners are involved (European Enterprise Network, the European Water Community, etc.).
The table in Part B2 presents the exploitable foreground developed by the NOVIWAM project.
The target groups for exploitation of the project´s results are:
o Practitioners
o Environmental managers
o Irrigators
o Engineering companies
o Operators (e.g. Waste Water Treatment Plants)
o Suppliers (e.g. Drinking Water)
o Decision support systems developers
o Coastal guards
o Industry
o Technicians
o Scientists
o Research institutions and academia
o Students
o Policy makers
o EU – level
-DG Environment
-DG Research and innovation
-DG ENV and related expert groups
-Common Implementation Strategy
o Member State – level
-Ministries
-Regional/National Water authorities and agencies (not only water related but also territorial planning and soil use)
o Local level
-Water authorities and agencies (inc. related topics, e.g. Soil)
-River basin managers
-Water User Associations
o Other
o Research funders
o Consulting companies
o NGOs
Regarding IPR measures taken or intended, there was no need to sign expecific agreements for the explotation of any foreground, since there is not original research work and Little to discuss on registered designs or similar. However, a few examples can eximplify how the matter was treated by the consortium:
- The NOVIWAM - Joint Action Plan - Executive Summary is licensed under a “Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivs 3.0 Unported” License (see http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
- For presentations and images of the Final NOVIWAM Conference and other NOVIWAM workshops, there was express consent of the author to the NOVIWAM Consortium for broadcasting rights namely, reproduction, distribution and public communication.
- In regards to treatment of personal data for registration to the Final NOVIWAM Conference, there has been express consent of the participants to the Conference the Andalusian Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment to treat their personal data. The participants have and may exercise their rights of access, modification and cancellation by contacting the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment through registration@noviwam.eu or by regular mail at:
Secretaría General de Medio Ambiente y Agua
Av. Manuel Siurot, 50
41071 Sevilla, Spain.
On other matters, while the goals of the project have been achieved, further research may be needed. This, however, will not entail deeper research on the existing subject and objective, but rather a follow up and development of the actions identified in the Joint Action Plan. Increasing the knowledge on these actions will definitively improve and generate a significant impact on the management of water resources in the region.
Regarding the impact of the exploitable foreground, a remarkable one would be the facilitation of linkages between NOVIWAM and other research and communication European initiatives.
Thorough the project life various activities have been developed in order to facilitate the collaboration between NOVIWAM and other European dealing with RTD&I projects in the water sector.
All these activities aimed to help well-structured initiatives to think how can they build collaboration bridges and acquire critical mass in water management RTD&I working jointly with similar initiatives. As a result, some very clear (current or potential) connections between the NOVIWAM project and others were established.
On top of that, the methods developed in order to reach a sectorial JAP in RTD&I has been proved of great interest for different authorities contacted in the various dissemination activities. So the JAP contents themselves are not only valuable to guide future RTD&I in Southern European regions, but also is a model of good practices using multilevel and open-participation approaches in the prioritization of RTD&I investments.
The definition of innovation and strategic agendas is a urgent need as identified by EIB, JPI Water Challenges, Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) or during the session on water SPI on WWF6, where the generation of a collaborative JAP was pushed forward and a NOVIWAM delegate took part within these dialogues.
The European dimension of the NOVIWAM project is clear both in the activities it fostered and in the results it achieved, for this reason special stress was put into disseminating its results throughout the Regions of Southern Europe and bringing in new regions into the JAP and the related activities. The NOVIWAM project generated and generates a direct impact in bringing about the objectives of several of the EU’s key policies.
The implementation strategy for the JAP included a financing program for the execution of the activities contained in the JAP through a series of separate projects financed by different available funding schemes for each type of activity thus exploiting the synergies existing between them. This strategy coincides with the recommendation made by the European Commission in its Communication Competitive European Regions through Research and Innovation (COM (2007) 474 final and SEC (2007)1045 – 16.08.2007).
Furthermore, the NOVIWAM project explored common problems and research topics and promoted their inclusion into the research agendas of the participating regions as well as other regions and member states. Thus the project fell into line with the recommendations that the Commission makes in its Communication Towards Joint Programming in Research (COM (2008) 468 final and SEC (2008)2281 and 2282 – 15-7-2008).
The objectives of the NOVIWAM project also fall in line with the EU enlargement policies, in special those referring to the Western Balkan countries in general and Albania in particular. The implementation of the NOVIWAM JAP did not only help bring Albania into line with a European Directive of the importance of the WFD, but it also potentiated clustering activities in the Water Management sector, increase the competitiveness and internationalization of Albanian SMEs and the scientific excellence and participation in cooperative projects of Albanian researchers. NOVIWAM was actually announced on Albanian TVs and media as the first 7FP project in the country. This all falls in line with the objectives established in the European Council Decision 2008/210/EC: Council Decision of 18 February 2008 on the principles, priorities and conditions contained in the European Partnership with Albania and repealing Decision 2006/54/EC that establishes objectives in the stabilization and association process of Albania.
List of Websites:
NOVIWAM public website URL is www.noviwam.eu. It contains detailed information regarding the project and connection with other sites with additional documents, for example:
- Videos and the slides used during Final Conference are available within the Coordinator’s website.
- A site with a digital version of the NOVIWAM Executive Summary: http://centa.es/noviwam/
The NOVIWAM official email is info@noviwam.eu and to contact the coordination team there are two physical addresses were communications can be send by post mail:
SECRETARÍA GENERAL DE GESTIÓN INTEGRAL DEL MEDIO AMBIENTE Y AGUA
Avda. Manuel Siurot, 50 - 41071 – Sevilla
Tel: (34) 955 62 58 67/ 955 00 35 00 - Fax: (34) 955 00 37 75
CENTRO DE LAS NUEVAS TECNOLOGÍAS DEL AGUA
Autovía Sevilla-Huelva (A-49), km 28 - 41820 – Carrión de los Céspedes (Sevilla)
Tel.: (34) 954 75 90 20 - Fax: (34) 954 75 52 95
I) THE NOVIWAM PARTNERSHIP
The NOVIWAM project brought together five European research-driven clusters experienced in a wide range of aspects of water management, which include representatives from the "triple helix" (administration, academy and industry). Those clusters represent five regions from Southern Europe: Cyprus, Albania, Poitou-Charentes (France), Andalusia (Spain) and the Northern Hydrographical Region of Portugal.
II) THE NOVIWAM PROJECT - KEY OBJECTIVES
• To facilitate cooperation between the triple helix components (authorities, business, research) of each regional cluster.
• To become a wide international research-driven network of clusters focused on water.
• To develop a research agenda proposing solutions to the needs identified in the participating regions. Out of this research agenda, 5 priority actions were clearly defined and promoted by project partners. Besides, specialists or action groups and new project consortia emerged out of NOVIWAM influence.
III) IDENTIFYING THE CORE ISSUES – SWOT ANALYSIS
A characterisation of the participating regions was conducted through stakeholder consultation and the project partner's research, concluding in a SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. The SWOT analysis provided a close look on the situation of the integrated water resource management systems and the involved stakeholders, specifically in terms of the environmental and socioeconomic context, governance and management issues, and the current scientific and technological situation and trends.
The conclusions extracted from the SWOT analysis served as drafting basis for the development of the NOVIWAM Joint Action Plan (JAP), which includes a series of actions to be undertaken and promoted jointly by the participants aimed at addressing the issues identified in the SWOT, using the internal strengths and external opportunities to correct the detected weaknesses and be ready to face potential threats.
IV) NEED FOR ACTION – JOINT ACTION PLAN
The SWOT and consultations revealed an absence of formal channels for the exchange of know-how, expertise and relevant data between researchers, public administration and the private sector, which prevents IWRM research projects to take duly into account relevant stakeholders' priorities and needs.
Water management governance also appeared in all participating region as one of the major weaknesses, mainly due to the relative novelty of the integrated water management legislation and associated administrative institutions.
Many similar needs emerged during the work and consultations around the SWOT analysis, ensuring that the research agenda embedded in the Joint Action Plan addressed real challenges in the water sector. Two short reports provided guidance on financing and implementation for research projects and actions that could emerge out of the JAP.
V) STEPS TOWARDS THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE JOINT ACTION PLAN
A series of measures are introduced by NOVIWAM partnership to ensure a high impact for its activities and its proposed actions within and beyond the initial framework of the project.
Project Context and Objectives:
Water is increasingly becoming a limiting factor for development and sustainable economic growth. In that context, the Water Framework Directive - WFD (2000/60/EC) reinforced the environmental perspective of water resources management goals in Europe, aiming the aquatic ecosystems protection and rehabilitation, and integrated planning. The WFD was an effective response to the existing concern about the weak sustainability of the business-as-usual approach to water resources management. Urban growth, as well as food and energy demands and recreational activities, are some of the steadily increasing pressures over water resources. This is the case in the Mediterranean basin, where an uneven distribution of water in space and time is the main feature of the hydrological regime. Furthermore, several regions are water scarce (below the 1000 m3/inhab/year threshold of the UNDP indicator of water stress) and the renewable resource exploitation index is over 25% in several regions. In combination with an increased water demand, the negative trends on droughts and floods will worsen in the future, according to all climate change scenarios regarding Southern European countries.
Sustainable water use and river basin management under these circumstances requires increased levels of integration and communication between users, water managers, planners, policy makers and scientists across spatial scales. To improve management through such integration, many authors highlight the importance of a meticulous ex-ante analysis of the water governance system, its actors, interests, values, and processes. As a matter of fact, governance model that success at fostering collaboration and communication among stakeholders are rather difficult to find anywhere in the world. The exchange of knowledge and innovation amongst water stakeholders is rather slow and erratic, having an impact in terms of market competitiveness and quality of the information available for management and decision-making.
Both the focus on actors and governance were vital for the successful implementation of the project Novel Integrated Water Management Systems for Southern Europe (NOVIWAM), launched under the EU’s 7th Framework Program of Research and Technological Development (FP7) within the Regions of Knowledge (RoK) Initiative. NOVIWAM had interregional and multilevel co-operation at its core, aiming at sharing water management innovations for attaining WFD goals. By learning through sharing experiences and pooling the related science and know-how, the capacity to address water problems increased within the involved regions and innovative solutions and research, technology development and innovation (RTD&I) projects were conceived.
The NOVIWAM project involves entities from five territories from southern Europe: the North of Portugal, Andalusia in Spain, Poitou-Charentes in France, Albania and Cyprus, and includes representations from public administration, research and business. The main goals of the project are to facilitate cooperation between authorities, research, and business of each regional cluster, to become a wide international research-driven network of clusters focused on water and to develop a research agenda proposing solutions to the individual and common knowledge-based needs identified in the participating regions.
To achieve this, the project carried out an intensive characterisation of the participating regions, concluding in a SWOT analysis. It served as drafting basis for the development of the NOVIWAM Joint Action Plan (JAP), which includes a series of actions to be undertaken and promoted jointly by the participants. Actions aimed at addressing the issues identified in the SWOT, using the internal strengths and external opportunities to correct the detected weaknesses and be ready to face potential threats.
NOVIWAM targeted the following intermediate objectives in order to achieve tangible results:
- Identifying impediments and factors of success of regional research driven clusters, and research systems and policies and institutional systems faced by their components through a SWOT analysis resulted from the detailed mapping of their current situation.
- Exchange of best practices and complementary staff exchanges between actors in different regional research driven clusters. Mutual learning and mentoring in order to catalyze the development of river basin management and planning tools with capacity to address the increasingly regulated sustainable use of water resources, environmental conservation and risk management. Through a number of actions including thematic workshops, training sessions and temporary staff exchanges between the different members.
- Design of a Joint Action Plan (JAP) for the development and implementation of integrated catchment and river basin management technologies specifically adapted to Mediterranean climatic zones that covered all of the phases that go from basic research to the end user based on the interactions between regional research driven clusters
- Establishment of permanent links between the involved regional clusters by the development of a Joint Action Plan supported by an Implementation Plan identifying the partners involved, the activities proposed and the funding schemes integrating both regional and national funds and European funds (Structural Funds, Framework Programme and Competitiveness and Innovation Programme), optimising the use of the joint capacities of the participating members and making the best use of the synergies existing between the different funding schemes.
- Encouraging the creation of new cluster initiatives in other EU regions, by their participation in dissemination Workshops of the project development, their involvement in further collaborative projects resulting from direct action plans, etc. Particular attention will be paid to the regions of the Mediterranean and Black sea basin, for which a specific dissemination strategy will be developed.
- Providing guidance and solutions for local policy makers and public authorities as well as improving RTD policies in existing clusters from other European regions. This objective will be achieved through the development of guidance reports for authorities and other regional actors and guidelines for the use and integration of different models (e.g. GIS, water quality, sediment transport, soil erosion or climate) for the use of authorities and water managers
- Reinforce and improve the regional water management policies supporting the development and implementation of Integrated Catchment Management Models in the participating regions, particularly models that are not alien to the particular dynamics of periods between precipitation events in the regions involved, thus reducing the dependency of the clusters to external/foreign regions/actors.
- Identifying fields for research for promoting environmental industries' competitiveness; focusing on technologies for markets with high growth potential, one main outcome of the project will be the development of a cross-regional joint research agenda, setting priorities for research in the field of Integrated Water Resources Management and promoting cluster development in general. This agenda will include development perspectives, strategic goals and concrete development activities to be pursued by the regions in the future in order to improve the competitiveness of Environmental Industries in Europe.
- Supporting strategic collaboration of clusters in Europe. To increase the outreach of the project a tool-kit and a training workshop concept will be developed. Both is aimed to involve and train SMEs, research and public Stakeholders from other regions beyond the project partners. The tool-kit is based on case studies, guidelines and background information, mirroring lessons learned and main findings out of the project. The training workshop supports the dissemination of the findings and know-how developed during the project.
- Support for SMEs in research and technology transfer. Developing the technological capacities and improving the competitiveness of companies involved in water management, especially SMEs. Improving their capacity to comply with European regulations such as the WFD and their level of competitiveness both at a regional and multinational level
- Setting up a pan-European platform to connect the environmental industries with experts and research institutions. The project will establish a European network to promote synergies between regional, national, EU & research policies and to reach sufficient critical mass to acquire and develop international visibility. Thus the project consortium aims to collaborate with further local and regional partners that have a similar ambition in order to link environmental hubs and clusters all over Europe in this sector.
- Disseminating the project, its aims and results throughout the activities contained in the dissemination plan.
Project Results:
For a better organization of the information, the science and technology results achieved by the project will be framed within each of the Work Packages. It must me remarked that the foreground of the project supports S&T, but does comply with the CSA-CA requirements, therefore, the foreground are not the result of RTD work.
Work Package 1: Characterisation of Regional Clusters and Research Agendas
The first objective of WP 1 was to have a detailed characterization of each partner regional cluster in order to establish a common work base and to know different needs and competencies of partner regions. In this WP, the consortium developed activities in order to identify and characterize the main agents involved in the regional clusters, RTD regional capabilities as well as the key competencies and needs of companies and other end-users. Another objective of this WP is to detect complementarities and synergies both within and between the regions. The information gathered was integrated in a detailed report, which includes SWOT analyses of all participating regions.
The characterisation work started by a stakeholder analysis performed by the partners and this served to contextualise the study of the region as well as for the interview and online survey phases. Methodologically, the different parts of the reports included information gathered from stakeholders in the regions and countries through online questionnaires and direct interviews, this information complemented the deskwork done by the participating partners.
There were eight different online questionnaires corresponding to the needs of different tasks and subtasks. The questionnaires were emailed to stakeholders both within and outside the participating regions, these stakeholders were selected from the partners’ contacts. In total, 803 stakeholders answered to the online questionnaires.
The partners carried out 37 direct in depth interviews with selected stakeholders. The information collected from these interviews and questionnaires complemented that gathered by the partners in their deskwork and was included in the reports.
The Report on the current situation of Integrated Catchment Management RTD is deliverable D1 of the project and the main result of this WP.
Together with the final deliverable, the following list of results has been achieved by the project.
- Detailed mapping of the socio political and legal framework for the management of water resources in each region and of their current trends, comparing them both with those of other regions and states and to the EU globally, including the analysis of the effect of measures such as the WFD. This task included the following sub-reports:
• Stakeholder Power Analysis. Partners collaborated on the identification of key entities that influence the management of water resources within their specific regions. The subtask leader guided the other partners towards the production of each of the regional Stakeholder Analyses.
• Reports on socio-political framework affected by water catchment management and the WFD. Led by partner 19 (CEMAGREF). Regional reports were prepared by partners from different clusters that were later included as a part of the main report. These reports were aimed at contextualizing the rest of the report. Data on the physical, socio-economical and administrative environment of each region were included in this report.
• Reports on legal framework for water catchment management. Led by partner 3 (FCLNTDA). This subtask was aimed at drafting a basic understanding of water governance in the region. A report addressing current and forthcoming regulations, plans and programmes, key institutional arrangements and public procedures affecting catchment management in each region was prepared and included as part of the main report.
• Reports on challenges and key issues regarding catchment management tools for WFD. Led by partner 5 (UGR). The participating partners prepared reports for the different regions tackling the timing of the transposition of the WFD to national or regional law when applicable and the influence of the WFD on the regulatory and institutional framework of integrated catchment management. A summary of the key challenges, impacts and controversies surrounding the application of catchment management requirements contained in the WFD was also incorporated. The core of each report is a review of current and projected systems, methodologies, models and technological solutions to comply with relevant catchment management requirements contained within the WFD. This report was included in the main report.
• Comparative report of selected countries. Led by partner 5 (UGR). This report is aimed at serving as a base for the future expansion of the NOVIWAM project to further areas and the inclusion of new partners in future activities by identifying regions and countries with similar environments.
- Mapping of the regions technology and knowledge production and transfer systems and their strengths and weaknesses. This task involved carrying out a detailed survey of the existing research capacities of each region, their strengths and weaknesses and a characterisation of the most relevant research topics for the regions researchers. The partners participating in this task produced reports on catchment management RTD for each one of the regions that were included as part of the main report. The internal strength and weaknesses of the catchment management RTD for each region was analysed taking in to account factors such as their main research activities, capabilities, most prestigious researchers and knowledge exchange potential. The reports detail on the application or development of models and other technological tools to aid decision-making in catchment management.
- Mapping of the needs of companies and other end users, particularly SMEs. A detailed characterisation of the companies involved in the various aspects of the management of water resources was carried out, taking into account aspects such as their sizes, association and co-operation trends, internationalization, RTD and Innovation policies. A report on the needs, markets, competitive intelligence and multi-stakeholder interaction for prominent developers of decision support systems for catchment management and successful SMEs working on this field as well as on the limitations of the current DSS from the point of view of end users was prepared by the participating partners.
- Analysis of current trends and developments Integrated Water Resources Management Systems and clustering activities in other regions. An in depth study of the current trends and advances made in the study and design of catchment management tools and decision support systems for catchment management aimed at completing the internal analyses produced in previous tasks and feed the final SWOT analyses in task 1.6. The task also briefly analysed the management of water resources and the possible interest in NOVIWAM in other Southern EU regions and other regions in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. The participating partners produced a report on current international trends in IWRM in other regions that was included in the main report.
- Report on the current situation of Southern Europe Integrated Catchment and River Basin Management Systems (Task leader p3 (FCDLNTDA), the rest of partners contributed to this task by preparing regional SWOT analysis and reviewing and commenting the successive drafts of the reports).
An expert board consisting of 6 independent external experts (one expert from each cluster and another one external to the NOVIWAM clusters) was selected by the partners to validate the methodologies used for the data collection and analysis as well as of the conclusions reached. This board included scientific, business and policy relevant actors. The comments and recommendations from these external experts were taken in to account when finalising the reports.
Based upon the data collected and conclusions reached out of the first Work Package, a strategic report on the deficiencies and risks detected in Integrated Catchment Management’s RTD and the main needs of the actors involved in the area, institutions, researchers and companies was produced. The concrete measures to promote the development and adaptation of these optimal integrated catchment management decision support systems will be set down in the Joint Action Plan.
This task included the preparation of regional SWOT analysis based on the information contained in the reports, the opinions gathered in interviews and questionnaires and the partners’ expertise. The consortium also produced a global SWOT analysis for all the participating regions.
The task also included the preparation of the global report which included the SWOT analysis as well as the reports prepared in previous tasks within the WP.
Work Package 2: Definition of a Joint Action Plan (JAP)
Based upon the results obtained in WP1, WP2 centres on the definition of a Joint Action Plan (JAP). This JAP addresses aspect such as the identification of possible co-operation research areas and their characterisation based on interest, urgency, scientific and technical quality and socio economic and environmental benefits, recommendations on optimal legal and administrative measures to be implemented in the regions, development of tools and practices to be implemented by companies, particularly SMEs and other end users and the establishment of communication and dialogue channels between the actors involve and best means of technology and knowledge diffusion and transfer.
The number and name of the task will precede the description of it, its work and results, as a way to simplify the browsing through WP2 and the following ones:
Task 2.1 - Classification and prioritization of the "needs" to be addressed by the JAP. Based upon the results obtained in WP1, the main weaknesses and threats affecting the involve regions and their different aspects have been selected, as well as the most relevant research topics that should be undertaken to address these risks and weaknesses. To carry out this task, the participating partners have relied on the information provided by the results of WP1 and the feedback provided by stakeholders in the participating regions.
Additionally, to ensure that the proposed actions have a broader impact in the participating regions, the consortium has taken into account the input from other stakeholders (responsible authorities, researchers and companies) through open brainstorming workshops and consultations, as well as from the participant’ expertise and ideas. The JAP consultation sessions took place in Poitiers (France), and in Braga (Portugal).The Poitiers session (held on the 16th February 2011) was organized by the International Office of Water (OIEau) in order to enrich the JAP structure and contents with feedback from stakeholders from the Poitou-Charentes region and with partners that represented all NOVIWAM regions. The session gathered more than 60 stakeholders, covering research centres, governmental and non governmental bodies and businesses specialized in integrated water resources management. The purpose of the consultation was to prioritise the most urgent actions to be implemented in each of the regions.
This resulted on the definition of series of objectives in answer to the issues raised by the SWOT and proposes a series of R&D and innovation actions to achieve these objectives.
Task 2.2 - Definition of specific targets for the JAP and of a timetable for its implementation
The participating partners defined 11 specific objectives (9 Scientific Objectives and 2 Capacity Building Objectives) regarding the necessities previously listed to include in the JAP. At the end of the first reporting period, partners defined the success indicators associated to these targets as well as the planned schedule.
Out of the 11 specific objectives, 2 objectives (namely Bridging Links Among the triple helix actors and improvement of Governance and Stakeholder Capabilities) were considered horizontal and of application when developing any of the scientific objectives of the JAP. In order to ensure that the research and development proposed by the 9 scientific objectives actually take into account the real needs of stakeholders, a working group (consisting on p1, p2, p3, p7 and p11) elaborated a set of guidelines for Bridging Links and Governance Capacitating).
Task 2.3 - Definition of specific actions and tools to be put included in the JAP
During the last reporting period, the participating partners worked on the definition of the specific actions and tools that will be used to achieve the objectives listed in the previous task. Out of this process the consortium proposed 41 actions in correlation with the necessities detected in the SWOT analysis. These actions and tools covered the whole RTD&I process, from basic research to the transfer of the results to be exploited by companies and public authorities and their benefits to citizens (up to here, all the tasks from WP1 and WP2 are simplified in the attached Pdf file with diagrams and photos).
In M27 partners with public responsibilities in Water Resources Management (p1, p7, p10, p14, p17) were involved in the selection of five priority actions of the JAP in order to highlight key research and development issues posed at a regional level. Using a weighing system, the actions selected as priorities by the authorities were assigned with a value
The result was a selection of five priority actions to be developed and promoted by partners. To this end, and as part of activity WP 4.4 in M29 the Consortium (lead by p2 and p3) organized a Workshop in Brussels entitled "Joint Actions addressing Europe's Water Challenges", hosted by the Committee of the Regions, under the umbrella of the Commission’s Green Week satellite events 2012.
As a result, the Workshop brought together 43 representatives from public administrations, policy-making and other relevant stakeholders. During this Workshop, the JAP core findings were presented to the public and the key messages addressed to public administrations, experts and policy-makers. Decision makers participating in the Consortium highlighted the main challenges identified in their respective regions and, researchers proposed specific research actions that could contribute at solving those water management challenges. After the project ending, partners are committed to develop these actions into detailed project proposals and seek implementation opportunities. This approach towards the implementation of the JAP not only ensures the uptake of its results but also facilitates the visualisation of a roadmap towards the adoption of the JAP ideas.
Task 2.4 - Financial planning for the implementation of the JAP, including the analysis of its relevance to the different EU programmes and the optimisation of the synergies existing between them.
At the end of the first reporting period (M18), the leading partner of this task (p2, AAC) together with the rest of participating partners prepared and submitted a financial study for the implementation of the JAP. To do this, the participating partners analyzed the relevant funding sources for the proposed action.
Task 2.5 - Preparation of the JAP and presentation to stakeholders.
A document detailing the JAP was prepared and presented to all the relevant stakeholders both at a regional and European level. The original document and their different updates were made available online as well as promoted in different events and conferences. As explained in section 3.2.3 of this report, the JAP was influential and is still being considered in the strategies of different European and regional organisations and initiatives. There were synergies between this and task 4.4 where an executive summary of the JAP was presented to the Commission and stakeholders.
The Project Co-ordinator transferred the lead on this task to FCLNTDA, whose work was to ensure that the results from the previous tasks were correctly integrated into the JAP. To help achieving this, the FCLNTDA ensured that the necessary communication existed between the different task leaders to ensure their successful outcome.
Work Package 3: Mentoring regions, mutual learning.
This WP is lead by partner 8 (UMINHO). The main purpose of WP3 was to support regional participants to increase their competencies to promote effective regional research-driven clusters and transnational co-operation capabilities. These services involve the exchange of partners between regions, dissemination of best practices, as well as, mentoring activities provided by EU leading regions. At European level, the aim of WP3 is to report to European competent bodies the results of the Project.
Task 3.1 - Workshops: implementation of optimal Integrated Catchment Management Systems through regional clustering. Including best practice exchanges, case studies and inputs from international experts.
The consortium has organized 3 workshops promoting best practice and result exchanges between the involved regions; these workshops has covered scientific and technical aspects as well as optimal public policies and support measures. The aim of the workshops is to promote strategies to improve the collaboration of all agents and to optimize the environment these agents operate in, improving their financial results as well as their competitiveness and employment generation potential, as well as improving their awareness of the global issues affecting the sector and the inclusion of these issues in their decision making process.
• The first workshop “Challenges of River Basin Management Plans” (Porto, December 2nd 2010), was centered on the preparation and implementation of river basin management plans. Basin Authorities and experts from all the participating countries, both project partners and other organizations, participated in this workshop to which 100 professionals assisted.
• The second workshop “Research serving the needs of integrated water resource management” (Poitiers, June 10th 2011) targeted research initiatives that facilitate water resource management and solve problems related to it in the participating countries. Research institutions, authorities and companies from all the participating regions took part in this workshop, both project partners and other guest organizations. 75 professionals of water management related sectors attended this workshop.
• The last workshop “Water Resources Management – Adaptation to Climate Changes” took place in Limassol, Cyprus, on 15 of October 2012 and had the title. It aimed to address critical issues related to the effect of climate change on the water resources. The workshop was supported by STREAM project and it was broadcasted live in STREAM’s website. The workshop was divided in 7 sections and 16 speakers participated, 7 of which were from NOVIWAM consortium. The participation on the workshop was open to all the interested stakeholders and it was free of charge. In total, the workshop had 55 participants. The number of participants from NOVIWAM consortium was 18, being 7 of them speakers.
The number of participants outside NOVIWAM consortium was 37. Nine of them contributed with a presentation. The participants outside the NOVIWAM consortium came from private companies, public authorities, private and public universities and research centres from Cyprus regarding water management.
The aim of the workshops has been to promote strategies to improve the collaboration of all agents and to optimize the environment these agents operate in, improving their financial results as well as their competitiveness and employment generation potential, as well as improving their awareness of the global issues affecting the sector and the inclusion of these issues in their decision making process.
Task 3.2 - Staff Exchanges
Staff exchanges between the different participants are included in the project. These exchanges aim at the dissemination of best practices and tools, identifying and incorporating them into the working practices of other project partners and finding common interests between different participants.
A total of 57 staff exchanges took place during the project based on partner´s capacitation, areas of expertise and interests.
Task 3.3 - In-house and external training activities to improve concrete capacities needed for the implementation of the JAP
The main goal of this activity was to improve concrete capacities needed for the implementation of the JAP. Some of the objectives included in the JAP involved a need for some of the partners to acquire certain knowledge or capacities. Partners were invited to identify their needs under the scope of JAP. Based on that, three training sessions were organized in Limoges (FR), Córdoba (SP) and Tirana (AL).
The first training activity was organized by p4 (UCO) and p5 (UGR) with the support of p3 (FCLNTDA) and p8 (UMinho). The activity entitled “Towards the implementation of the Join Action Plan” was held in Cordoba on the 16th November 2011. Its main objective was to improve the capacities needed for the implementation of the JAP.
In total, the training activity had 30 participants, 24 of which were members of the NOVIWAM project, and 6 PhD students of the Universities of Córdoba and Granada. Participants from the “triple helix” (Central and regional administration, universities and/or research centers and companies) had a significant participation on the training activity.
The training seminar was designed to disseminate and promote the best practices, case studies developed by each participating region in NOVIWAM. Regional Authorities were the main target audience, in order to increase their competencies and to promote effective regional research-driven clusters as well as transnational cooperation capabilities.
The second training seminar took place in Limoges on 27-29 March 2012. It was organized by partner 11 (OIEAU) in order to establish a connection between NOVIWAM partners and the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) projects managed by International Office for Water.
A day was dedicated to the training of the participants in link with the implementation of the Joint Action Plan (JAP). In addition, p11 offered a visit tour of the National Training Centre and made a presentation of its national and international activities.
The last NOVIWAM training activity was organized by the Albanian cluster (p13, p14, p15) with the support of p3 (FCLNTDA). It took place in Tirana (Albania) on 9-10 November, 2012. It was organized in the frame of the 2012 Annual Conference and Exhibition: "What is water worth to you?. Its main objective was to strengthen the institutional capacities within Albanian institutions. The training activity titled “To improve policy and capacity needs for IWRM” was planned for two days. In the first day, the participants had the possibility to join a roundtable, to discuss themes highly important for the Integrated Water Management sector in Albania.
The training covered scientific and technical aspects as well as the best public policies and support measures. The final goal of the training was to help regional clusters in the implementation of optimal Integrated Water Resource Management. This training had a representative of an important group of stakeholders on the Integrated Water Resources Management, which contributed towards a more objective and functional assessment of the sector management, as well as the capacities which the sector comprises.
Task 3.4 - Creation of a remote advisory facility or helpdesk. Both as a direct mailing system and as an online discussion and debate forum.
In this activity, lead by Simbiente, a remote advisory facility was achieved through the development of a specific designed collaborative platform, designed as a workspace in open source technology and including the following main features:
• Access profile according to the role of users involved;
• NOVIwiki: feature to describe and exchange case studies, practices and experiences;
• Helpdesk specific-designed for the partners and for the general public to submit scientific and technical queries about water management and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), to be answered by a board of nominated experts and/or by the partners. This feature can be organized by relevant topics and the board can include experts for the main water management issues (e.g. marine water, surface water, groundwater, ecological quality, economic analysis, information systems, public participation,…)
The platform has been working under different settings depending on the period of the project, in line with the technical possibilities and the demands of project partners. In every case, it was totally independent from the online tools that OIEAU provided for collaborative work and internal communication of the partners. For example, remote advisory facility started being independent from any other tool or website associated to NOVIWAM, and all partners were accessing directly to the platform using the credentials provided by the task leader. Then, OIEAU made available the “public area” of the platform (in the section “Ask a Water Expert” within the NOVIWAM website (www.noviwam.eu). The last step was to integrate it in a reserved area on the project website, allowing online private and public discussions (according to the profile of the subjects), among the NOVIWAM partners and between them and other stakeholders.
The architecture of the platform has been completed in July 2011 and it is currently integrated into the project website. It was also prepared an “user manual” (“NOVIWAM Helpdesk in a Nutshell – Quick Guide”) and a complementary video.
Simbiente led this activity and has invested a larger effort in it than was foreseen in the original Annex I, the partner has redistributed its efforts accordingly. The lead partner designed the platform counting with the inputs and validation of the rest of partners participating in the task. During the second project meeting in Seville in June 2010, the partners decided to take advantage from the synergies between this task and task 4.3 “Support to the internationalisation of the activities of researchers and innovative companies (advice on IPR and contractual issues)” and make use of the platform for the execution of this task also, contracting for that purpose the services of Chimp –Specialized Communication, Ltd.
Task 3.5 - Setting up of a scientific advisory commission and a policy evaluation group.
Two commissions were proposed aiming to assist the researchers specialised in the related disciplines and analyze the policies being implemented and new policies and actions.
Under this task, it was also established that this commissions have the mission of perpetuate NOVIWAM beyond the end of the project, as well as give support to triple helix actors in water related projects and contribute to the development of regional water research driven clusters. In that regard the majority of the persons in the commissions integrated the list of experts for the Helpdesk developed in task WP3.4.
Besides, it was also encouraged the expression of partners commitment for Action Groups under the EIP-Water. In that regard, each partner submitted its personal interest in formation of an Action group and a joint candidature was submitted by p3 (FCLNTDA). This candidacy did not win, possibly due to the lack of clear financial back-up, but another more specific proposal allowed a group of NOVIWAM partners to have an Action Groups under the EIP-Water.
Work Package 4: Measures towards the implementation of the joint action plan
This WP includes measures that will facilitate the execution and implementation of the JAP. The scope of the project does not cover the implementation of the JAP but the activities contained in this WP facilitated this implementation both by improving the capacities of the actors involved as well as gaining the support of the relevant authorities and decision makers.
These objectives go one step further in the sense that they allow for the possible improvement of the JAP and the inclusion of further regions into its activities.
Task 4.1 - Development of mutual clusters ambassador scheme
Summary: the purpose of this Activity was to appoint representatives from each NOVIWAM cluster to attend events held by clusters from other regions that are not represented within the project consortium and to explore further collaboration schemes between the different clusters.
Activities carried out and Specific Results; So as to get this goal, the consortium has carried out the following:
- A “Common List of International Events related to Integrated Water Management of Interest to the NOVIWAM Project”; prioritized by the partners (dated 2 September 2011, Report 4.1.2 COMMON EVENTS PRIORITIZED BY PARTNERS 02.09.11 DEF)
- Partners attending relevant international events of interest to the consortium. The events were presented during the NOVIWAM consortium meetings so the consortium can coordinate their assistance to a selection of strategic events. During the event/conference acted as NOVIWAM ambassadors by presenting the NOVIWAM project and detected cooperation opportunities as well as the relevant outcomes and contacts deriving from their participation:
• CENTA attended the “IWA-World Congress on Climate, Water and Energy” in Dublin, Ireland, on May 2012
• CUT participated to the “3th IWA-RHWM Conference & Exhibition” in Goseong, Korea on the 20-24 May 2012
• ATLANTIS presented NOVIWAM during the “Week of Innovative Regions WIRE 2012 Conference” dedicated to smart regional development based on knowledge and innovation; organised in Krakow, Poland on 4-5 June 2012
Additionally, some partners have acted as ambassadors presenting and generating cooperation opportunities for the Project on an “ad hoc” basis, namely:
• INRA presented the NOVIWAM project to the visiting Professor (Ms. Catarina Roseta Palma) from the Department of Economics of Lisbon University Institute to INRA, during an exchange of researches in water management domain.
• The Andalusian Regional Office in Brussels presented the project on behalf of the Andalusian partners of NOVIWAM at the POTENTIAL ERRIN WATER Working Group meeting in Brussels organised by the Aragon Region on 26 Sep 2012. It searched for synergies between the EIP water, current open calls from DG Environment, the European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) and several EU projects.
Task 4.2 - Co-operation with the European Cluster Observatory
Summary: the aim of this activity was to (A) establish a communication with the European Cluster Observatory and keeping them updated on the project and project results, this includes presenting the JAP to the Cluster Observatory and welcoming their comments on it; (B) the consortium was to also collaborate with the Eco-innovation Platform.
A) One of the purposes of this task was presenting the JAP to the European Cluster Observatory and receiving their comments, however, the consortium had to redesign its approach. Despite of this, the registration of the NOVIWAM clusters in European cluster-related websites, as the one of the European Cluster Observatory, was promoted. Different contacts were made with the organisations in charge of some of those platforms and websites. For example, Andrea Radinger and Christoph Reiss-Schmidt from the European Cluster Collaboration Platform were contacted in May of 2012; after that, it was thought that clusters remaining linked after the end of the project would be registered in their system.
After several inquiries about which organisation was the most suitable to provide some technical feedback for the JAP, it was considered that INNOWATER -a sectorial partnership belonging to the Eco-innovation Platform and its Coordinator, the European Water Partnership (EWP), was the right organisation to contact due to its specific focus on the water domain, by providing support to water-users in evaluating their water-use, identifying their challenges and bringing them into contact with innovative technologies.
Although we requested specific feedback from the EWP/INNOWATER for the Joint Action Plan, we were not able to receive such feedback before submitting the JAP to the EC. Nevertheless EWP/INNOWATER sent feedback on the JAP by January 2013, which was integrated in the text since the JAP is going to be maintained by the consortium as a living document even beyond the project duration. EWP/INNOWATER has pro-actively cooperated with the NOVIWAM project in additional activities.
Activities carried out and Specific Results; EWP/INNOWATER has pro-actively cooperated with the NOVIWAM project by means of:
- Presenting the European Water Partnership and INNOWATER during the NOVIWAM Final Conference in Seville (21 January 2013) within the Session “Linking users and generators of water RTD&I”, their presentation’s name was “EWP. INNOWATER, The Netherlands INNOWATER: Facilitating market access of water innovations”.
- Participating at the Networking Session organized after the NOVIWAM Conference addressed to relevant IWMR EU-funded initiatives: “Facilitating linkages between research and communication European initiatives”, in Seville on the 22nd January 2013
- Elaboration of a background dossier with information on the European Cluster Observatory to brief partners as well as information about European Water Partnership and INNOWATER
To approach and present the project goals as well as the Joint Action Plan to EWP/INNOWATER, the consortium drafted some background documents in order to make a proper introduction to our contact persons -Mr. Harro Riedstra and Ms. Selma Hilgersom:
- Introductory letter to explain the EWP/INNOWATER our request for feedback on the JAP.
- A briefing about NOVIWAM and introduce its objectives and key goals to be sent to the EWP/INNOWATER
B) On the aim to collaborate with ECO-INNOVATION, by seeking participation within the CIP Programme Committee via the National Contact Points, the consortium made an effort to get this goal, but after interacting with the National Contact Points, decided to revise the application of this action taking account the changes occurred in CIP Programme due to its insertion in H2020.
As result of this situation, the consortium decided to drop this specific action due to the changes to the CIP Programme introduced by Horizon 2020, which implied that 2013 will see the last calls of the CIP programmes before its integration with the FP in Horizon 2020.
However, the Eco-innovation Platform contains INNOWATER as a sectorial partnership that provides support to water-users in evaluating their water-use; identify their challenges and bringing them into contact with innovative technologies to address these challenges. The Coordinator of INNOWATER is the European Water Partnership, therefore, the actions developed with INNOWATER /EWP were relevant for both pieces of this activity.
Task 4.3 - Support to the internationalisation of the activities of researchers & innovative companies
Summary: the aim of this activity was (A) the active promotion of the internationalisation of the activities carried out by companies and researchers from participating regions, both within the JAP objectives and in other issues; (B) the creation of help-lines and policies, and (C) the organisation of international matchmaking events within the water sector, coinciding with other workshops and conferences; to promote international cooperation between entities from commercial agreements to collaborative RTD&I projects and exploiting synergies existing with existing initiatives such as ENN.
A) On the active promotion of the internationalisation of the activities carried out by companies and researchers from participating regions:
The purpose of this WP was defining measures applicable by regional authorities to foster internationalisation of researchers and innovative companies’ activities within the JAP objectives and in other issues.
The partners wrote the Report “Measures applicable by regional authorities to foster internationalisation of researchers and innovative companies’ activities” gathering a set of identified measures including some examples of good practices taken from existing initiatives, as well a set of recommendations on how to implement the measures that could serve to help all interested entities giving orientations on how to create a favorable framework for internationalisation
B) Creation of a helpline to advice on IPR and contractual issues:
The purpose was to create a consultative platform (NOVIWAM Helpdesk) where any external user could post questions about water management or intellectual property rights, which were to be sent to our “international board of experts” and then responded to that person.
As for the queries related to Intellectual Property Rights, since the consortium did not have the necessary legal knowledge and expertise, it was agreed to derive such questions to the European IPR Helpdesk.
Activities carried out and Specific Results:
- The consortium created a “Helpline” to advice on IPR and contractual issues inside the NOVIWAM website, within the remote advisory facility
- A NOVIWAM Helpdesk Platform Protocol for the management of the Platform was prepared
- A list of NOVIWAM Experts for the “Water Helpdesk” was designated among the project partners for each specific water-related matter was created, this person responded to technical and scientific external queries (also within the document; NOVIWAM Helpdesk Platform - Governance Model)
- Equally a Quick Guide to help the rest of the partners to Manage the Platform was elaborated and presented
- As results of these activities the consortium has got a helpline to advice water research-related, contractual issues and also regarding IPR.
C) On the Organisation of International Matchmaking Events for the sector -coinciding with the programmed workshops and conferences:
With the sector-driven “Matchmaking Events” it was intended to promote international cooperation between entities from commercial agreements to collaborative RTD&I projects, exploiting synergies existing with existing networks such as ENN.
The consortium, through its partner the AAC -member of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN)-, organized on the 21st of January of 2013 (1st day of the Final NOVIWAM Conference) a parallel Brokerage Event on Novel Integrated Water Management Systems, focused on one-to-one pre-scheduled meetings (http://www.b2match.eu/noviwam).
The Brokerage Event sought to enhance opportunities and facilitate collaboration opportunities between different actors (i.e.: Research & Development, Technical Co-operation, Joint Venture Agreement, Manufacturing Agreement, License Agreement, Commercial Agreement, EU-funded Project) involved in the water, agriculture and RTD&I sectors
Consequently, with this activity the consortium obtained the following result:
• 50 individual participants actively participating in the Brokerage Event
• A total of 104 bilateral meetings took place during the one-day event;
o 60 bilateral meetings during the morning session
o 54 bilateral meetings in the afternoon session
For the organisation of the Brokerage Event various preparatory documents were elaborated, namely: a) the official Brochure of the Brokerage Event co organised with the EEN, b) a Catalogue identifying all participants and their core interests and c) a Detailed Agenda containing all the bilateral meetings that were to take place among all 71 participants registered to the Brokerage.
Task 4.4.- Guidance Reports to regional authorities, researchers & companies
Summary: the tasks were to (A) have specifically tailored “Guidance Reports” attending to the different typologies of the involved agents, researchers, companies involved in water resource management and regional authorities, and (B) such report is to be presented at relevant workshops and events and will be actively promoted by all consortium members.
DELIVERABLE 6 of the NOVIWAM Project (as described in Annex 1 of the Grant Agreement) under the name of “Guidance Reports or handbooks for authorities, researchers and companies” was at the core of task 4.4.
A) Specifically tailored “guidance reports”; the purpose of activity was to have a Guidance Report addressed to regional authorities, researchers & companies, in order to present the basics of the NOVIWAM project but what’s more, the main conclusions derived from the Joint Action Plan.
Activities carried out and Specific Results:
- The project partners drafted a document that was entitled “Joint Action Plan - Executive Summary”; where the basics of the NOVIWAM project, the main conclusions derived from the Joint Action Plan, as well as some selected JAP Actions of specific interest to the public authorities were contained.
- The Guidance Report sought to communicate the central findings of the Joint Action Plan with a particular focus on the public administration representatives and policy-makers. Representatives of the different public bodies participating in NOVIWAM were consulted about the preferred contents for the “guidance reports” and their answers leaded to the design of such a summary of the project, the JAP and concrete examples of the applicability of the JAP. The latter was addressed through the design of detailed research initiatives in line with the priorities of the JAP.
- The 5 priority research actions described in the “Executive Summary” were selected and prioritised by the consortium authorities from a pool of ideas generated within the consortium itself as indicated in WP2.3.
- In order to ensure that the “Executive Summary” was clear, concise and reached its target audience, we were able to obtain external feedback from experts outside the NOVIWAM project, namely from:
• Mrs. Nora van Cauwenbergh; pertaining to the UNESCO IHE, Institute for Water Education (The Netherlands)
• Mr. Peter Janknecht; from the Stadtwerke Düsseldorf (Germany)
• Mr. Rafael Rodríguez-Clemente; Senior Researcher of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (Spain) and National Representative for Spain of the RoK and REGPOT Programmes
• Mrs. Rosa M. Muñoz; from the Centro Tecnológico Andaluz de Diseño, SURGENIA (Spain)
B) The Report is to be presented at relevant workshops and events and was actively promoted by all consortium members, even after the formal closure of the project at the end of 2013.
The main task or subtask of this action was organising a specific workshop or event with a European scope, in order to communicate the findings of the Executive Summary of the Joint Action Plan (JAP). As a result, the consortium presented a specific Workshop in Brussels on the 12th of June 2012 entitled "Joint Actions addressing Europe's Water Challenges", hosted by the Committee of the Regions, under the umbrella of the Commission’s Green Week satellite events 2012.
This Workshop brought together 43 representatives from public administration representatives, policy-makers and relevant stakeholders.
During this Workshop, the JAP core findings were presented to the public and the key messages addressed to public administrations, experts and policy-makers. Our aim was to identify obstacles and success factors of integrated water management in Regional clusters and to provide solutions to regional and EU policy makers and public authorities, thus, researchers from the Consortium proposed specific research actions that could contribute at solving some of those water management challenges.
In terms of dissemination of the Deliverable 6: a) hard copies of the “Executive Summary” were distributed during the Workshop, b) hard copies of this report were sent by the AAC to the project partners for distribution to their regional national stakeholders, c) the report is publicly available in electronic format on the NOVIWAM website (www.noviwam.eu/join-action-plan.html and http://centa.es/noviwam) d) the report was disseminated during the final stages of the project and throughout 2013.
Task 4.5 - Exploitation of the joint research capacities & collaboration possibilities (in
future co-operation projects) serving to the implementation of the JAP
Summary: the aim of this activity has been to guarantee further collaboration between the partners and other organisations from the involved regions as a mean to further develop the objectives contained in the JAP.
The Consortium decided to achieve these by (A) securing follow up and participation by the NOVIWAM partners in related EU-research projects and initiatives and (B) organise an EU Workshop on Building Capacities on Bridging and Governance on the thematic areas of the JAP.
A) To secure a follow up and participation by the NOVIWAM partners in related EU-research projects a series of activities were carried out:
- Starting as of July of 2011, within the Agenda of Consortium Workshops the partners included an item to present up-to-date information on potential relevant programs and calls of interest to the NOVIWAM Consortium, with a view to facilitate and foster participation in new proposals by the partners.
- Along this line, during the Brussels Consortium meeting (12th June 2012), a fully dedicated activity was organised a “Round Table on Public Funding”, to report on relevant programs and calls of interest to the Consortium and to foster participation by the partners.
- There never was a list of partners and proposal coming out of NOVIWAM since privacy on this matter is a very strategic element. However, a series of co-operative RTD&I initiatives were informally reported and jointly developed by different groups of partners, and some were also submitted to funding calls. This is one of the reasons that encouraged partners to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to continue working under roof of NOVIWAM after the termination of the project. A few articles of the MoU provide the adequate framework to ensure the partners commitment on fostering their collaboration on international RTD&I projects.
B) EU Workshop on Building Capacities on Bridging and Governance:
To get this goal the consortium organized Session 2 titled “Linking users and generators of water RTD&I” on the afternoon of the 21st of January 2013, during the Final NOVIWAM Conference in Seville.
The Session dealt with water-related projects trying to bridge knowledge production, management and communication among stakeholders, gathering the experiences of the triple helix actors -authorities, researchers and businesses.
Task 4.6 - Exploration of possibilities of including further regions into the JAP & creating contacts with them
Summary: the intent of this specific activity is to foster the possibilities of exporting the JAP to other regions of the South of Europe and Mediterranean and Black Sea regions and including third regions into the JAP objectives and undertaking specific actions within them. DELIVERABLE 7 (as described in Annex 1 of the Grant Agreement) “Prospective Report for the Addition of other Regions to the JAP” was at the core of this task.
In order to increase the projection and collaboration possibilities, the consortium partners prepared an information folder containing Fact Sheets of the NOVIWAM Consortium integrating partners, wherein the individual profiles, capacities and areas of knowledge of each partner was presented.
This information folder was edited and distributed to the participants of the Brussels Workshop “Joint Actions addressing Europe's Water Challenges", on the website of the NOVIWAM final Conference and disseminated among the partners (See: www.juntadeandalucia.es/medioambiente/site/portalweb/menuitem.7e1cf46ddf59bb227a9ebe205510e1ca/?vgnextoid=5827d0e63794b310VgnVCM1000001325e50aRCRD&vgnextchannel=612d2fbb4730b310VgnVCM2000000624e50aRCRD&lr=lang_es).
In composing Deliverable 7 “Prospective Report for the Continuation of the NOVIWAM Cluster and the Addition of New Regions to the JAP” the partners identified suitable regions to be invited to cooperate with the NOVIWAM project and promoted the implementation of the Joint Research Action Plan, seeking the participation of water research-driven clusters from Southern Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and the Black Sea Area.
Particularly, the promotion of the JAP was actually facilitated via:
• The definition of the JAP expansion and internationalisation strategy, seeking compatibility and possible synergies, and using previous documents (mainly from WP1, SWOTs and JAP) and the individual profiles of each partner
• Establishing contacts with suitable organisations
• Elaborating “Prospective Regions Analysis” of the interested clusters from Southern Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and the Black Sea Area
• After the analysis of the information and contacts made, further conversations were established with 5 clusters with some potential to adopt and develop the JAP:
- Thessaly region, Greece.
- Aegean and Peloponnese region, Greece
- Galicia region, Spain
- Bulgaria
- North Morocco, Morocco
Those 5 interested triple helix clusters submitted the following documents to allow the detailed assessment of the extension of NOVIWAM to their regions:
- Country/region report on describing key water issues and research needs in Integrated Water Management.
- Organisation profile
- Research capacities, exploitation or uptake potential
Further to the duties derived from the NOVIWAM Project implementation – signed with the European Commission-, a majority of the Consortium Partners have expressed their interest to continue such collaboration once the NOVIWAM contract is over. In order to articulate this new cooperation, the consortium has elaborated a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which presents the strategy and prospects for future collaboration, inviting all NOWIWAM partners and other relevant Regions to join this novel initiative.
Task 4.7- Awareness rising on the needs/ possibilities detected at a regional & EU level
Summary: in doing this activity, the project members were to define a specific “communication plan” adapted to its target audience and on the basis of the high-priorities identified in the JAP findings and tailored to communicate and disseminate the various activities carried out to implement the JAP.
Activities carried out and Specific Results:
- Elaboration of a NOVIWAM Leaflet specific on the JAP.
- The Brussels Workshop “Joint Actions addressing Europe's Water Challenges" was labeled and included as a “Green Week Satellite Event 2012”.
- Dissemination of the “JAP – Executive Summary” document has been carried out by all NOVIWAM partners to its A contacts by electronic mailing, hard-copies of the report has been distributed to the Regions Stakeholders and in the NOVIWAM Final Conference, the electronic version of the Executive Summary has been published on the project Website (http://www.noviwam.eu/results.html)
Work Package 5: Dissemination and communication activities
Partner 12 (OIEAU) leads the communication and dissemination WP with the guidance and a strong support provided by partner 3 (FCLNTDA). The dissemination of the activities carried out within the project and the obtained results aims at reaching both stakeholders elsewhere and the general public. To achieve this, a communication plan was designed by Partner 12 in order to involve all partners into a common dissemination and communication strategy.
Task 5.1 - Publication of the results of the project on a website that includes sections to gather feedback and recommendations from stakeholders and the general public and a virtual market place
The website www.noviwam.eu was initially designed by Partner 18 (ACC) with the objective to be fed by the partners for the national language pages. The budget allocated to the activities of website update was soon exceeded. Therefore both, the contents and the structure of the website remained outdated. Consequently, Partner 11 (OIEAU) in close collaboration with Partner 3 (FCLNTDA) redesigned the website to a more attractive and updated version, unifying its format with the format of the digital version of the project digital Executive Summary (see http://centa.es/noviwam/). In M36 the website is finalized and updated. It provides initial access into English pages, except the section “NOVIWAM in brief” and “the final event Newsletter” that are translated to the language of all participants.
Regarding the internal collaborative space, After a few trial months, and due to the difficulties found by some partners in accessing and managing the initial online collaborative space, Partner 11 (OIEAU) implemented a new online collaborative space the online collaborative space for the project using the software tool “OpenKm”. All partners received individual access to this collaborative space that served as a channel for the exchange of documentation between partners. All partners agreed on that the new tool was more functional and user friendly. The tool has been kept beyond the end of the project on January 2013.
Task 5.2 - Presentations of the developments achieved in each stage of the project through their presentation at European and international events
The activities included in this task allow the project partners to present the project and the activities carried out and results obtained at each of its stages at the relevant international forums and events they have access to.
Task 5.3 & 5.4 - Co-ordinated communication plan for the dissemination of results through scientific papers, mass media, newsletters and mass media
The first step in this task was the development of a communication plan which was lead by OIEAU and to which the rest of partners contributed. This communication plan contained a series of actions and objectives as well as instruments to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions.
The participating organisations have posted information on the project, news items and press releases on their websites. Also, the partners have informed the local press in each of the participating regions about the development of the project and related events, and therefore there has been a broad number of media releases with references to the project in the different languages (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Greek and Albanian).
In order to contribute with the dissemination of the project results, p3 (FCNTDA) drafted a document entitled “Joint Action Plan - Executive Summary”; where the basics of the NOVIWAM project, the main conclusions derived from the Joint Action Plan, as well as some selected JAP Actions of specific interest to the public authorities were contained, A digital version of the Executive Summary was hosted in a microsite called http://centa.es/noviwam/ and used for results dissemination by all partners. This sought to communicate the central findings of the Joint Action Plan with a particular focus on the public administration representatives and policy-makers.
Task 5.5 - International conference to present the JAP and results of the project.
The NOVIWAM Conference, titled “Connecting authorities, researchers and businesses on water management RTD&I”, took place 21st to 22nd January, 2013 in Seville, Spain. Organized by three Andalusian project partners (p1, p2 and p3), with advice and support of members from the NOVIWAM Consortium, the Conference served as a noteworthy opportunity for professionals from the water sector in southern European Union to share experiences, and make contributions to encouraging the joint collaboration between water authorities, academia and the business sector.
The morning session of the first day of the Conference (21st of January 2013) was based around the structure of Joint Action Plan (JAP) in which RTD&I water challenges in line with JAP objectives were discussed. Each of the five NOVIWAM clusters invited appropriate speakers, providing evidences of the advances of those fields, but also proving the potential for RTD&I in the participant regions.
The afternoon session focused on water-related projects trying to bridge knowledge production, management and communication among stakeholders, gathering the experiences of the triple helix actors, as already mentioned in the description of Task 4.5.
Presentations and a round table addressed during the second day the interfaces of knowledge production on water with policy, management, RTD&I and EU funding.
In summary, the programme of the conference included eighteen oral communications presented in 4 different sessions:
1st session: Strategic RTD&I topics on water: Session on NOVIWAM objectives
2nd session: Linking users and generators of water RTD&I
3rd session: Water policy and RTD&I in the European Union
4th session: Building Strategic agendas on water RTD&I
The conference also included a parallel Brokerage Event on the 21st of January aiming to enhance opportunities to explore and find partners, mainly from the water and agriculture sector to promote future collaboration and projects. It also was part of Task 4.3.
A few off-programme sessions followed the last day of the NOVIWAM Final Conference Connecting authorities, researchers and businesses on water management RTD&I. They consisted on a networking lunch, a networking session called “Facilitating linkages between research and communication European initiatives” and the presentation of a “Memorandum of Understanding” for regional clusters willing to stay connected with the NOVIWAM consortium. All conference speakers, NOVIWAM partners and some additional guests were invited to these sessions.
Potential Impact:
It was within the scope of NOVIWAM to facilitate the implementation of the results of the Joint Action Plan both by improving the capacities of the actors involved as well as gaining the support of the relevant authorities and decision makers. As a consequence, the JAP and other outputs from the project have produced an influence on the water and related sectors, particularly regarding the way to target RTD&I priorities. Little of its foreground is directly exploitable, although it is designed to triggers profitable RTD&I actions indirectly. The main results already described in the previous section can hardly be described without connecting them to their impacts. Therefore, in the previous and longer section, many details about the potential impact of the foreground are explicit. Here in this section, they will be review and some expanded, being of special relevance the impacts and activities that developed after out of the project duration. The continuation of some of the project activities via the signature of a MoU is therefore central to this section.
The NOVIWAM Cluster (constituted after the signature of the MoU) intends to continue working together and expanding beyond the end of the project in early 2013. The cluster will to ensure that all NOVIWAM products reach their full impact though various means, including the development of new projects to build upon the obtained results. In this context, a series of measures are introduced by NOVIWAM Cluster to ensure a high impact for its activities and its proposed actions.
The NOVIWAM cluster will give especial attention to the exploitation of the results of the project, both in quantitative – making sure that the results reach the maximum number of people – and in qualitative – ensuring that they reaches the people to who it is of more interest and to maximize the impact on its target groups. The responsible for exploiting the foreground are all members of the NOVIWAM cluster.
During the 36 months of duration of the project goals and the dissemination of its results has been achieved through a series of actions:
• SWOT Analysis for the 5 regions and a comprehensive SWOT analysis gathering the circumstances of the 5 regions
• Report on the current situation of Southern Europe Integrated Catchment Management Systems at a Regional Cluster level
• NOVIWAM Methodology for the characterisation of the necessities of the regions
• Joint Action Plan (JAP) and its Executive summary (paper, digital and online versions) to guide stakeholders on R&T collaboration
• Study of the financial perspectives for the implementation on the JAP and its relevance to European Programmes and funding schemes
• Organisation of 3 thematic workshops (in December 2010, June 2011 and October 2012) to facilitate capacity building of project partners and other stakeholders towards the implementation of the JAP.
• 57 staff exchanges took place during the project based on partner´s capacitation, areas of expertise and interests
• 3 internal training modules (November 2011, March 2012 and November 2012)
• Presentations of the project outputs at related international conferences.
• Presentation to potential project collaborators and presence in the European Enterprise and other local networks in order to spread the knowledge towards their members.
• Publications in scientific journals throughout the project
• Actively contacting relevant stakeholders in new regions and exploring further collaborations, using the guidelines of a previous Prospective study.
• Development and presentation of the guidance reports to regional authorities, researchers and companies, to disseminate the challenges identified by the project and to promote for joint actions to address those challenges.
• Development and dissemination of project website, helpdesk, posters, power point presentations, leaflets, press releases, etc.
• Organisation of a final Conference, where researchers, authorities, business and other stakeholders joined to share knowledge and good practices in the field. Besides, NOVIWAM methodology, results and regional case studies were disseminated.
The project achieved successfully all its objectives, making NOVIWAM a respected brand name within the European scene of water RTD&I. NOVIWAM Final Conference was a proof of its large capacity of influence and its strong connections with many innovative initiatives (e.g. some NOVIWAM partners are integrated in an Action Group of the EIP-Water). NOVIWAM did not only benefit the regions and partners involved, but it became a driver of social innovation in the water sector, promoting novel ways of prioritising, developing and promoting RTD&I in the water and related sectors.
Regarding the NOVIWAM Final Conference, over 160 people from 8 different countries met at the NOVIWAM Conference. The profile of the attendee’s varied from regulators, researchers, consultants and other groups of interest, such as associations of irrigators, students, technology platforms and other members of the society.
Number and nationalities of assistants to the NOVIWAM final Conference
Profile of the assistants to the NOVIWAM Final Conference
It is noteworthy mentioning that the NOVIWAM Conference coincided with the snow storms that caused the cancelation of most of the flights in different European airports within United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, etc. The extreme meteorological conditions caused therefore the withdrawal of some speakers and assistants.
The one-hour networking session “Facilitating linkages between research and communication European initiatives” was addressed to create discussion between the NOVIWAM Consortium and representatives from EU projects/initiatives with possible synergies between themselves and the NOVIWAM project. All assistants to the session were encouraged to participate.
Returning to the activities after the end of the project, the exploitation of the project results is and has been based in:
1. Update and dissemination of the NOVIWAM project website.
Partners will ensure that the NOVIWAM project website gathers all milestones and achievements of the NOVIWAM cluster after the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding.
2. Exploitation of the remote advisory facility or helpdesk
Both as a direct mailing system and as an online discussion and debate forum, the online forum will be open to discuss issues affecting both the project and its scope. A remote helpdesk was created to answer the queries of the members in which different experts have been selected to answer the incoming queries on property rights or water. The users are able to share case-studies and choose which posts they want to be publicly available in a simplified version of the helpdesk embedded in the project website.
3. Monitoring the impact of the International Brokerage Event organised in Seville
The brokerage co-organised by CESEAND and NOVIWAM in Seville, aimed to promote the international cooperation between entities at all levels, from simple commercial agreements to collaborative RTD projects, exploiting synergies existing between NOVIWAM and initiatives such as the Enterprise Europe Network. The months after the project ending were essential for the monitoring and evaluation of the real impact of this activity. Consequently, with this activity the consortium obtained the following result:
• 50 individual participants actively participating in the Brokerage Event
• A total of 104 bilateral meetings took place during the one-day event;
• 60 bilateral meetings during the morning session
• 54 bilateral meetings in the afternoon session
4. Consolidation of the NOVIWAM Cluster through the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
The NOVIWAM Cluster is to further develop and build on the outputs and lessons brought about by the NOVIWAM Project until early 2013. Some specific and scientific objectives evolved during the three years of the Project, following an adaptive project management style. Hence, in the current stage of the partnership, the essential objectives of the NOVIWAM Cluster are to:
- Promote, disseminate and undertake research within the water management domain and related sectors, acting as a wide research-driven “Cluster of clusters” or “Hypercluster”.
- As the partnership structure is grounded on the triple helix concept, the Cluster shall strongly promote the inter-relation and cooperation between the triple helix actors: public authorities, business and research entities.
- Promote RTD&I and capacity building activities in key fields of interest for the represented Regions, as identified in the NOVIWAM JAP; the JAP shall be considered a living document to be adapted to the priorities of the Members.
- Further new water-related research, innovation and technological development activities at European level, whilst providing enhanced opportunities for access to EU-funded research projects to its Members.
- Ensure a stronger international presence, visibility and profiling of the Cluster as well as of the activities undertaken by its individual Members.
- Strengthen the positioning of the Cluster and its Members interests in the definition of research, innovation, strategic and political agendas.
- Improve access for its partnering organisations to privileged water-management expertise and know-how.
- Reinforce a long term strategic alliance with European organisations holding a common research agenda.
- Increase international “networking opportunities” for the Cluster Members.
- Provide its Members with relevant water-management information, data, international conferences and events and monitoring of research opportunities.
Signing the MoU allows partners to continue the benefit from mentoring and networking activities to promote the implementation of some of the actions of the JAP, broadening the opportunities of project partners and other regional stakeholders to participate in further RTD and innovation European Co-operative projects.
5. Exploitation of the NOVIWAM partnership joint research capacities and exploration on collaboration possibilities in future transnational co-operation projects serving to the implementation of the JAP
The project results confirm the similarity of the IWRM related problems and necessities faced by very heterogeneous regions. The potential of the triple helix approach to face those problems also became evident straight from the beginning. Therefore, the potential impact of the outputs of the NOVIWAM project, and specifically of the Joint Action Plan are not exclusive to the involved regions but are susceptible of being adapted and implemented elsewhere. Eventually, the main goal is to consolidate a wide research-driven network of clusters on IWRM beyond 2013. It increased its potential to push knowledge-based economic development in the participants regions as well as to help dealing with some of the most pressing technical and institutional challenges on the water sector.
Regarding the NOVIWAM website, it will remain online after the end of the project and the partners will be in charge of updating it with the milestones achieved after signature of the MoU, this will ensure the sustainability of the projects´s foreground.
The consortium aims a disseminating the project results by making them available not only through the project’s website but also through the partner’s own websites and other networks where partners are involved (European Enterprise Network, the European Water Community, etc.).
The table in Part B2 presents the exploitable foreground developed by the NOVIWAM project.
The target groups for exploitation of the project´s results are:
o Practitioners
o Environmental managers
o Irrigators
o Engineering companies
o Operators (e.g. Waste Water Treatment Plants)
o Suppliers (e.g. Drinking Water)
o Decision support systems developers
o Coastal guards
o Industry
o Technicians
o Scientists
o Research institutions and academia
o Students
o Policy makers
o EU – level
-DG Environment
-DG Research and innovation
-DG ENV and related expert groups
-Common Implementation Strategy
o Member State – level
-Ministries
-Regional/National Water authorities and agencies (not only water related but also territorial planning and soil use)
o Local level
-Water authorities and agencies (inc. related topics, e.g. Soil)
-River basin managers
-Water User Associations
o Other
o Research funders
o Consulting companies
o NGOs
Regarding IPR measures taken or intended, there was no need to sign expecific agreements for the explotation of any foreground, since there is not original research work and Little to discuss on registered designs or similar. However, a few examples can eximplify how the matter was treated by the consortium:
- The NOVIWAM - Joint Action Plan - Executive Summary is licensed under a “Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivs 3.0 Unported” License (see http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
- For presentations and images of the Final NOVIWAM Conference and other NOVIWAM workshops, there was express consent of the author to the NOVIWAM Consortium for broadcasting rights namely, reproduction, distribution and public communication.
- In regards to treatment of personal data for registration to the Final NOVIWAM Conference, there has been express consent of the participants to the Conference the Andalusian Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment to treat their personal data. The participants have and may exercise their rights of access, modification and cancellation by contacting the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment through registration@noviwam.eu or by regular mail at:
Secretaría General de Medio Ambiente y Agua
Av. Manuel Siurot, 50
41071 Sevilla, Spain.
On other matters, while the goals of the project have been achieved, further research may be needed. This, however, will not entail deeper research on the existing subject and objective, but rather a follow up and development of the actions identified in the Joint Action Plan. Increasing the knowledge on these actions will definitively improve and generate a significant impact on the management of water resources in the region.
Regarding the impact of the exploitable foreground, a remarkable one would be the facilitation of linkages between NOVIWAM and other research and communication European initiatives.
Thorough the project life various activities have been developed in order to facilitate the collaboration between NOVIWAM and other European dealing with RTD&I projects in the water sector.
All these activities aimed to help well-structured initiatives to think how can they build collaboration bridges and acquire critical mass in water management RTD&I working jointly with similar initiatives. As a result, some very clear (current or potential) connections between the NOVIWAM project and others were established.
On top of that, the methods developed in order to reach a sectorial JAP in RTD&I has been proved of great interest for different authorities contacted in the various dissemination activities. So the JAP contents themselves are not only valuable to guide future RTD&I in Southern European regions, but also is a model of good practices using multilevel and open-participation approaches in the prioritization of RTD&I investments.
The definition of innovation and strategic agendas is a urgent need as identified by EIB, JPI Water Challenges, Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) or during the session on water SPI on WWF6, where the generation of a collaborative JAP was pushed forward and a NOVIWAM delegate took part within these dialogues.
The European dimension of the NOVIWAM project is clear both in the activities it fostered and in the results it achieved, for this reason special stress was put into disseminating its results throughout the Regions of Southern Europe and bringing in new regions into the JAP and the related activities. The NOVIWAM project generated and generates a direct impact in bringing about the objectives of several of the EU’s key policies.
The implementation strategy for the JAP included a financing program for the execution of the activities contained in the JAP through a series of separate projects financed by different available funding schemes for each type of activity thus exploiting the synergies existing between them. This strategy coincides with the recommendation made by the European Commission in its Communication Competitive European Regions through Research and Innovation (COM (2007) 474 final and SEC (2007)1045 – 16.08.2007).
Furthermore, the NOVIWAM project explored common problems and research topics and promoted their inclusion into the research agendas of the participating regions as well as other regions and member states. Thus the project fell into line with the recommendations that the Commission makes in its Communication Towards Joint Programming in Research (COM (2008) 468 final and SEC (2008)2281 and 2282 – 15-7-2008).
The objectives of the NOVIWAM project also fall in line with the EU enlargement policies, in special those referring to the Western Balkan countries in general and Albania in particular. The implementation of the NOVIWAM JAP did not only help bring Albania into line with a European Directive of the importance of the WFD, but it also potentiated clustering activities in the Water Management sector, increase the competitiveness and internationalization of Albanian SMEs and the scientific excellence and participation in cooperative projects of Albanian researchers. NOVIWAM was actually announced on Albanian TVs and media as the first 7FP project in the country. This all falls in line with the objectives established in the European Council Decision 2008/210/EC: Council Decision of 18 February 2008 on the principles, priorities and conditions contained in the European Partnership with Albania and repealing Decision 2006/54/EC that establishes objectives in the stabilization and association process of Albania.
List of Websites:
NOVIWAM public website URL is www.noviwam.eu. It contains detailed information regarding the project and connection with other sites with additional documents, for example:
- Videos and the slides used during Final Conference are available within the Coordinator’s website.
- A site with a digital version of the NOVIWAM Executive Summary: http://centa.es/noviwam/
The NOVIWAM official email is info@noviwam.eu and to contact the coordination team there are two physical addresses were communications can be send by post mail:
SECRETARÍA GENERAL DE GESTIÓN INTEGRAL DEL MEDIO AMBIENTE Y AGUA
Avda. Manuel Siurot, 50 - 41071 – Sevilla
Tel: (34) 955 62 58 67/ 955 00 35 00 - Fax: (34) 955 00 37 75
CENTRO DE LAS NUEVAS TECNOLOGÍAS DEL AGUA
Autovía Sevilla-Huelva (A-49), km 28 - 41820 – Carrión de los Céspedes (Sevilla)
Tel.: (34) 954 75 90 20 - Fax: (34) 954 75 52 95
