GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

The diversity of challenges to secure water for all, requires a new co-funded partnership that brings together all public and private research funders and supports a more efficient collaboration and integration of EU, Member States and Associated Countries R&I activities related to water. It also requires the alignment and/or integration of different research and innovation agendas and of EU and national programmes, coordination of funding agencies and commitments to implement a long-term strategy that would deliver major changes and impacts. Based on a shared and co-constructed SRIA, such a partnership should combine bottom-up and top-down approaches to reconcile needs whilst pooling resources from different sources. It should foster consortium building and help leverage between existing initiatives under common broader or specific objectives.

Water4All should be implemented through a joint programme of activities ranging from research and innovation programme coordination to new knowledge and innovation development, transfer to policy-making, operational implementation and demonstration of the efficiency of solutions. It should be structured according to the following pillars:

• Identify research and innovation priorities to strengthen alignment of EU and national RDI programmes and increase the impact and policy relevance.
• Develop new knowledge and innovative solutions for a systemic and inclusive approach to water challenges at operational scale (e.g. river basin, water catchment).
• Transfer knowledge and innovation to i) policy-makers and ii) operators / managers so that they are able to implement the proposed solutions.
• Demonstrate the efficiency and the sustainability of the proposed solutions at local level, in close cooperation with the relevant actors (including policy-makers and decision-makers).
• Increase and strengthen international cooperation to develop a critical mass in relation to the global challenges faced.