Water EIP gets Website

The candidate European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Water has just launched its own dedicated webpages on the European Commission's DG Environment website. The site describes the innovation initiative and allows interested parties to view and contribute to the on-going consultation process.

The candidate EIP on Water was initiated by DG Environment, in close cooperation with DG Research and Innovation, other Commission DG's and stakeholders such as SusChem, to develop a proposal to take forward under the Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative for an Innovation Union.

An EIP is designed to unite all relevant European actors and resources around common targets to speed up breakthrough innovations to solve specific societal challenges where there is also a large market potential for EU business.

The strategic objective of the proposed EIP on Water is to position Europe as a world leader in water technology and services by boosting innovation, promoting the creation of new market opportunities and by contributing to achieving the sustainable and efficient use of water, while at the same time using innovation to develop adequate and state of the art European water policy.

Three point strategy
The strategic objective has three main thrusts:

• To develop innovative solutions for the many water quality and quantity challenges Europe (and the world) is facing. These water related challenges serve as the driver for interaction between policy and innovation.
• To boost innovation, creating a global leadership position for European water technology and services, in line with the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy.
• To mobilise all relevant actors at EU, national and regional levels, remove any regulatory and market barriers, promote the integration of various policy and finance instruments and increase the demand for innovation, across all sectors and users of water.

The heart of the EIP will be a number of Innovation Sites. In the current proposal, that is subject to consultation, the Innovation Sites will be organised around three work packages. These are:

• Urban water management
• Rural water management
• Industrial water management

In addition a number of horizontal themes will be addressed and, initially, up to 30 Innovation Sites are foreseen. Each innovation site will be a large-scale, solution-focussed project.

For more information on the Water EIP visit the DG Environment website or contact Cefic Innovation Manager Antonia Morales Perez who is coordinating SusChem input.