NEWAVE laid out and achieved the following overarching objectives throughout its years of existence:
1. Bring together an excellent trans-national and transdisciplinary network of water governance organisations;
2. Develop and implement a cutting-edge actionable research agenda on the key water governance priorities and insights for future directions;
3. Train a new generation of water governance early stage researchers (ESRs) and ensure that they have the trans and interdisciplinary skills to make significant contributions to both the academic and extra-academic water governance world.
The Consortium has consolidated its collaboration through the collective participation in different activities regarding management, training, supervision, research, and events, with the involvement of academic and non-academic members; the latter including governmental and non-governmental agencies, consultancies, and civil society. NEWAVE’s organisation and involvement in international events resulted in an increased outreach and awareness of the Network. In some cases, this interest in NEWAVE would turn into official partnership.
At the heart of NEWAVE’s research agenda lies the awareness that water governance is a multigenerational, politically sensitive, socio-environmental challenge which requires the involvement of policy makers, civil society actors, entrepreneurs and scientists from different disciplines. NEWAVE developed and implemented a collective research agenda, building on the 3Ps heuristic framework generated by NEWAVE members. The 3Ps (Problématiques, Paradigms, Patterns of water governance) are the three interrelated angles through which to approach water governance. This common framework is used to generate accumulation of knowledge and the organisation and coordination of the research activities. The 3Ps framework builds on different disciplines, ensuring coherence while maintaining epistemological diversity, and supporting emergent properties.
The training activities conducted have taken care of the quality and innovative aspects of the programme. NEWAVE placed particular attention to specific elements while designing training activities, as: providing and encouraging the exploration of new epistemological horizons across disciplinary boundaries, as well as new and innovative research methodologies; co-producing of teaching and learning activities and products; involvement of non-academic actors in supervisory teams, for the ESRs’ secondment and for dissemination of results.
The exceptional scientific experience of the NEWAVE consortium, the interdisciplinary approach to tackling issues and the diversity of the partner organisations guaranteed the ESRs exposure to the latest scientific concepts and methodologies, from fundamental to applied research. In addition to practical experience through non-academic secondment, the solid and innovative combination of training in scientific and transferable skills during the TAD Skills School and other workshops during NEWAVE, made NEWAVE researchers highly attractive to potential employers in all sectors concerned. To develop the training, NEWAVE focused on a variety of skills to ESRs the leadership capacity to excel and make a difference in water governance and launch diverse careers in a variety of sectors.
Results demonstrating the capacity to make significant contributions to academic and extra academic water governance world encompass the publications in high-impact journals, as well as the capability to participate and influence discussions in leading global debates, such as the participation in the UN Water Conference. Not only that, many ESRs adopted bottom-up approaches in their research, engaging directly with the involved communities and co-producing results with them, demonstrating the fundamental role of raising community voices in water governance discussions.
