Topic II Integrated risk-based management of the water-sediment-soil system at river-basin scale (topic for one Integrated Project)

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1 WATER DIRECTORS MEETING 2/3 DECEMBER 2004 IN AMSTERDAM INFORMATION ON RTD / LIFE CALLS FOR PROPOSALS AND PROGRESS OF THE SCIENCE/POLICY INTERFACE ACTIVITY IN SUPPORT OF THE WFD IMPLEMENTATION 1. RTD CALLS FOR PROPOSALS 1.1. Priority 6.3 The 3 rd call of the Priority 6.3 Sustainable Development, Global Change and Ecosystem has been published on 16 th June 2004, with a submission deadline set on 26 th October This is a call with a two stage evaluation procedure and therefore a second deadline for the submission of the complete proposals is foreseen on March A series of topics of this call will be of direct interest to the WFD. They are mainly included in the section II Water cycle, including soil-related aspects, the objective of which is to understand the mechanism and assess the impact of global change, and in particular climate change, on the water cycle, water quality and availability, as well as soil functions and quality to provide the bases for management and technological tools for water systems, to mitigate the impacts. Noticeable topics (which might be in direct support to the WFP implementation and/or the EU Water Initiative on the short- to medium-term) are inter alia: Topic II Integrated risk-based management of the water-sediment-soil system at river-basin scale (topic for one Integrated Project) Topic II Twinning European/third countries river basins (topic for up to two Strategic Research Projects and/or Co-ordination actions) Another topic is of direct interest to the Flooding initiative, e.g. Topic II Advances in flood and drought forecasting (Integrated Project). To be noted is also a topic under Complementary Research (section VII), namely topic VII Environmental analysis and monitoring of emerging environmental pollutants which might be of direct interest on the long-term (e.g. review of the Priority Substance list in 2015). Finally, other research topics are also of interest to other water policies and/or on the long-term to the WFD implementation (integrated urban water management, technologies and systems for drinking water, membrane bio-reactors for municipal wastewater, sewage sludge treatment, disposal and re-use, water reclamation and artificial groundwater recharge, vulnerability of global water resources to environmental change). Specific Support Actions are also proposed, one of which on the Technology Platform on Water Supply and Sanitation which could be of interest to the WFD. The results of the

2 evaluation and a first list of relevant selected projects will be provided to the Water Directors at the next meeting under the LU Presidency Scientific Support to Policies (SSP) Priority The 4 th call of the SSP Priority has been published on 30 th October 2004, with a submission deadline set on 1 st February Three topics are of direct interest to the WFD implementation with the sub-priority 1.5 Environmental assessment (soil, water, air, noise, including the effects of chemical substances), namely: Task 1. Risks of pesticides use to surface and ground-water Task 7. Assessment of the monetary values of environmental and resource costs for water services Task 8. European analytical quality control scheme for water, sediment and soil analyses 1.3. ERA-NET In addition to the above funding mechanisms, the ERA-NET scheme has been set up within the 6 th Framework Programme to co-ordinate national and regional publicly funded programmes. Funding bodies like ministries and research councils may submit proposals for the networking of national or regional research programmes or innovation programmes in sectors of their choice. The Commission funds the co-ordination and the Member States finance the research activities. Typically, ERA-NET projects include exchanges of information on programmes and projects, exchanges of best practice, strategic analyses for future joint activities and programmes, joint calls for proposals etc. This mechanism hence allows for the coordination of research programmes with relevance to environmental policies, including the Water Framework Directive, but also on bilateral or international (research) programmes. Among the noticeable programmes that have already been funded, the SNOWMAN project (Sustainable management of soil and groundwater under the pressure of soil pollution and soil contamination) is of direct interest to groundwater policies as covered by the WFD, the 80/68/EEC Directive and the GWD proposal. The network aims to produce an overview of current research programmes in the specific field concerned and to develop a Vision Paper which will define the goal of European research activities in this specific field of environmental research. The ultimate goal is to implement and conduct a research programme on bi-/multilateral level throughout Europe. Contact: Stefan VETTER ( Stefan.Vetter@lebensministerium.at). The last call for ERA-NET proposals has been closed on 5 October Information on retained proposals of interest to the WFD will be publicly available in January. 2. LIFE-ENVIRONMENT The 2004 call for proposal of LIFE-Environment has been closed on 30 th November 2004 (submission of projects to national authorities who have to submit them to the Commission on January 14 th ). Efforts have been made to open the call programme 2

3 to topics of direct relevance to water policies, in particular by promoting demonstration activities in Pilot River Basins. It is hoped, therefore, that these efforts along with the information disseminated at various occasions (SCG meetings, Water Director s meeting in Dublin, PRB workshop in Ghent in October 2004), will result in projects with a direct link to the Common Implementation Strategy of the WFD. In particular, the message that LIFE could satisfy some CIS demonstration requirements (e.g. water pricing, programme of measures) has been passed to the PRB network. 3. OVERVIEW OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM (WSSTP) Since the latest information provided in the Water Director s meeting last June in Dublin, the following progress was made. The governance structure of the WSSTP has been now established. Besides the WSSTP Board (coordinating, deliberative and decision-making body), the Stakeholder Forum (open consultative group), Secretariat (management and administrative support body) and the Member States Mirror Group (Member States consultation body), four Thematic and one Horizontal Working Groups have been established. They provide the necessary scientific and technical background to the development of the expected deliverables. Each of the working group has a chairperson, a rapporteur and a facilitator, and consists of core members with relevant scientific and technological expertise plus a number of corresponding members providing additional expertise. Furthermore, professional mirror groups have been established in several EU member states to support the working groups and as means to disseminate information. More specifically the Working Groups and chairpersons are as following: 1. Water Management Tools (Chairperson: Dr. G. S. Rodenhuis, IAHR/European Hydraulic Labs); 2. Urban and Rural Water Systems (Chairperson: Mr. R.Vahala, EUREAU); 3. Water for Industry (Chairperson: Dr. T.Vereijken, EUCETSA); 4. Water for Agriculture (Chairpesron: Prof. M. Nawalany, Warsaw University); 5. Horizontal Working Group on cross-cutting issues (Chairperson: Prof. A.Wilderer, EASA) Up to now five Board meetings, twelve meetings of the various Thematic Working Groups (TWGs), and two meeting of EU Member States Mirror Group have taken place involving already about 100 European experts from the various stakeholders. In addition, a website has been launched ( to facilitate dissemination of information, public consultation, intra and inter Working Group work. For the period before the end of 2004, the various working groups are working to develop the first individual outlines of vision, strategic research agenda and implementation plans, for their respective thematic areas, in order to move forward stakeholder consultation and receive detailed feedback before proceeding with the production of the integrated WSSTP document. According to current discussions, the presentation structure of the final WSSTP document may conform with the following: 3

4 1. Introduction (WSSTP working procedures, Group composition/representativeness) 2. Scope 3. Vision (Where should the EU be in years taking account of the international context; Thematic Objectives; Drivers: common set of assumptions, Needs, Barriers and Challenges; Contribution to EU Objectives) 4. Strategic Research Agenda (including a Road Map for short, medium and long term issues) 5. Implementation Plan 6. Impact Assessment 7. Compliance with IWRM principles 8. Links with other Platforms and relevant activities 9. Annexes A first draft vision documents, strategic research agendas and the implementation plans are expected to be made available for consultations on the WSSTP website at the end of January In this occasion, the organisation of an open Stakeholder Event is also envisaged to disseminate the results, enhance public awareness and allow for an open consultation forum to debate and review the proposed orientations. 4. SCIENCE-POLICY INTERFACE ACTITIVY IN SUPPORT OF THE WFD The issue, challenges and difficulties of developing a science-policy interface in support of the WFD implementation are under discussion among various actors since a Commission workshop that took place in Brussels in January Discussions have clearly pointed out that a mechanism was lacking to transfer scientific information to the WFD policy community in a straightforward way, and reciprocally to timely communicate research needs arising from the WFD implementation to the scientific community. A first debate among the DG ENV, WFD implementers and the scientific community took place in a conference held in March 2004 under the umbrella of the HarmoniCA initiative 1, a concerted action funded under the 5 th Framework Programme by the DG RTD. This resulted in an agreement to collaboratively develop an interface which would allow to efficiently access scientific information related to the WFD and to enhance applicability of successful EU-funded research. Discussions highlighted that the need to develop 1 One of the objectives of Harmoni-CA is to create a forum for communication, information exchange and harmonisation of Information Communication & Technology (ICT)-tools for integrated river basin management and the implementation of the WFD. 4

5 such an interfacing mechanism concerned not only modelling tools (covered under HarmoniCA) but also research concerning specific items of the WFD, which is funded by other priorities/programmes (FP6 projects as well as LIFE projects). Finally, it was recognised that awareness on projects funded by Structural Funds (INTERREG III) would also be very beneficial in such an interface. Taking these considerations into account, a concept paper has been prepared and presented at the Strategic Co-ordination Group meeting of May The idea to discuss further, and to involve practicioners has been agreed, which formed the basis for the organisation of a workshop on PRB and research & technology integration, involving PRB representatives, Commission officials (DG ENV Water & Marine Unit, LIFE programme, DG RTD, DG REGIO, and JRC-IES) and coordinators of WFD-related RTD, LIFE and INTERREG III projects. This workshop has been held in Ghent on 4-5 October The main outcome of the discussions highlighted the need to establish strong links among the different funding mechanisms and ensure a proper dissemination of results to end users (including WFD implementers). The concept of a practical science-policy interface in support of water policies is now being reflected by Commission s services. It takes into consideration the need to properly defined short-, medium- and long-term research needs linked to policy agendas (design, development, implementation and review), to increase the awareness and use of research results for policy making and to establish strong links among the different funding mechanisms, namely: Research funding programmes (thematic priorities of the EU framework programmes but also national research, which may be coordinated through the ERA-NET scheme) and research undertaken by the EC Joint Research Centre to respond to identified (short-, medium or long-term) research needs. The programmes also promote and facilitate the dissemination, transfer, exploitation, assessment and/or broad take-up of past and present programme results and the preparation of future RTD activities (through Specific Support Actions); Demonstration programmes, like the LIFE projects, possibly linked to validation activities of RTD projects considered to be promising in support of WFD implementation. Such demonstration could be of interest to the PRB network, which could act as a kind of validation platform ; Research integration interface, facilitating the identification of promising RTD projects, their dissemination and transfer to WFD implementers. This interface is under discussion through the HarmoniCA initiative, and could develop into a EU wide system under WISE; Finally, research policy interface, enabling to defined long-term research policy objectives in the light of the policy agendas (in particular reviews, strategies and long-term goals). One activity of interest in this respect is the ERAWATCH initiative led by the Joint Research Centre (IPTS 2 ). ERAWATCH 3 has been Action 4121 on Policies and Human Resources for Research (JRC Draft Workprogram 2005), 5

6 conceived as an integrated strategic intelligence service to support evidencebased research policy-making in Europe. It aims to contribute to the realisation of the European Research Area by providing better knowledge and understanding of national and regional research systems and of the environment in which they operate. To ensure the successful and cost-efficient design and implementation of the full scale ERAWATCH service, the ERAWATCH prototyping phase has been designed to identify and test both the outputs of the service and the most appropriate procedures and structures for its operation. One of the studies of this prototyping phase relates to the analysis on Water Research Policies in Europe. These different parts of a possible interface are featured in the diagram below. It is expected that concrete developments will be discussed at the next HarmoniCA conference in April 2005, which will allow to present examples of possible achievements at the next Water Directors meeting. FP6, ERA-NET Research Research funding development programmes PRB, RTD DEVELOPMENT Research use, demonstration ERAWATCH? DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION LIFE Research Research Water policies Research Policy policy Demonstration interface programmes REVIEW Research Research progress dissemination Research INTERREG III Integration interface HarmoniCA, WISE Example of possible science-policy integration mechanism 6