WE@EU

European Water Efficiency in European Urban Areas

Implementation period

2013 – 2016

Scope of work

Adaptive management and governance

Participants

Anglia Ruskin University

EA Econentreprises

EGAMA- Campus for medicine and research in GalileeAssociation

Migal Galille Technology Center

Opportunity Peterborough

Peleg-Hagalil

University of Zaragoza

ZINNAE

Funding

WE@EU is a project under the Regions of Knowledge programme of the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme (GA 320007). The European Commission has provided more than two million euros to develop the project. The contents of this page represent the views of the author and are solely the responsibility of the author; they cannot be regarded as reflecting the views of the European Commission and/or the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) or any member of the European Union. The European Commission and the Agency accept no responsibility for any use that may have been made of the information contained therein.

Description

WE@EU is promoting a network of regions that will establish strategic guidelines for water and innovation in the urban sphere that will enable the prioritisation of lines of public funding for R&D&I with the participation of a network of regions: Aragon in Spain, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in France, East of England in the UK, Eastern Galilee in Israel and Malta.

Objectives

To foster high-level transnational cooperation and integration between research-driven entities and mutual learning between regional actors.
To improve links and integration between regional authorities, researchers and the regional business community.
Develop and implement joint action plans at the European level to increase regional economic competitiveness.
Support the internationalisation of regional entities.
Disseminate knowledge and raise public awareness.
Mentoring regions with a less developed research profile.

Results

The project contributed to defining common strategic priorities of the five clusters involved and had the following main results:

Framework collaboration agreement between the five regions and clusters for identifying stakeholders linked to integrated urban water cycle management.
Development of a joint action plan to boost innovation in water management based on regional capacity building, internationalisation, R&D&I and innovation financing.
Development of a toolbox for cluster development and creation, tested in Malta as a pilot region.
Signing two international cooperation agreements with the Nevada Center of Excellence (USA) and the Peruvian Water Competence Centre. These agreements promote collaboration and channel innovation between Europe and North and South America.
Support the participation of projects in the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme.

During the WE@EU project, the participating clusters have grown by an average of 20%; they have participated in more than 30 H2020 proposals, of which 13 have been funded, including the participation of the clusters and their partners in the H2020, LIFE+, SME Instrument and COSME

Programmes, contributing to the involvement of SMEs (currently 50% of the clusters’ business partners are SMEs). Three of the five clusters have contributed to developing Intelligent Specialisation Strategies at the regional level.

More information https://www.weateu.eu/