Candidate Partnership WATER4ALL – Water Security for the Planet

29 July 2022

The WATER4All initiative main objective is to enable water security for all on the long term, by boosting systemic transformations and changes across the water-research innovation pipeline, fostering the matchmaking between problem owners and solution providers.  The partnership proposes a portfolio of multi-national, multi-faceted and cross-sectoral approach, encompassing policy, environmental, economic, technological and societal considerations.

By 2030, it intends to achieve reduced water stress, increased protection of water resources and ecosystems and enhanced resilience, mitigation and adaptation of water systems to global changes.

Water security for all is a keystone for achieving the Green Deal and a Healthy Europe. 

This integrative and cross-sectoral approach of Water4All will also supports the achievement of the water-related UN Sustainable Development Goals, not only the UN SDG6 related to clean water and sanitation, but also Goal 14 (Life below water), Goal 15 (Life on Land), Goal 13 (climate action) or Goal 2 (no hunger).

Co-funded Partnerships are a new instrument launched in Horizon Europe. Such a programme of activities may support networking and coordination, research, innovation, pilot actions, and innovation and market deployment actions, training and mobility actions, awareness raising and communication, dissemination and exploitation, any relevant financial support, such as grants, prizes, and procurement. 

The objectives presented by Water4All are:

To provide solutions to the current and increasing water crisis in the context of the Green Deal and Sustainable Development Goals;
To strengthen scientific evidence for new policies or update existing ones;
Supporting efficient collaboration and integration of EU, MS and international R&I activities in a multi-actors innovative approach; and
Increase implementation of solutions and therefore global impacts.

This will create a continuum from the identification of the challenges to the demonstration of proposed solutions, ensuring a more rapid translation of research and innovation into concrete applications and uptake by relevant managers and citizens.

The ambition of the partnership is to have Member States, European Platforms, and the private sector to agree on multi annual funding of the activities. This will support efficient collaboration and integration of EU and countries activities, and strengthen water diplomacy and EU’s role as global actor by supporting regional and international cooperation.

The Water4all partnership can bring in later new partners and/or activities as planned in the five pillars:

Pillar A - Ensure coordination and alignment of EU/Nat./reg. programmes and continuum in actions from Research & Innovation to implementation
Pillar B - provide new knowledge and innovative solutions at the relevant scales of implementation from local to regional and global
Pillar C - foster the uptake of R&I results by engaging industry, users and policy makers while developing skills and capacity building at EU and intl. scale
Pillar D - Demonstrating the efficiency of innovation solutions and leveraging with “downstream” funding programmes (equipment investments, demonstration ) by replication
Pillar E - Attracting new partners for creating the necessary critical mass required by global water security challenges and developing innovation cooperation tools

Summary of the current proposal

Policy oriented summary

Full proposal

Water4All Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda draft

FAQ on Water4All

The Water4All proposal was developed by a group of networks and their members:

Water JPI: 23 full members (Ministries and executive agencies of Science / Innovation / Technology and Environment) from EU, neighbouring and Beyond Europe, 3 Observers and 5 associated countries
Water Europe: 218 individual members distributed in seven different colleges (Multinational corporations, Research & Technology developers, Utilities, Suppliers & SMEs, Large water users, Public Authorities and Civil Society Organisations)
EUREAU: 32 national associations of drinking and waste water operators (both public and private) from 29 European countries (representing 470,000 direct jobs)
Aqua Publica Europea : 65 public water operators and their associations distributing more than 70 million citizens every day (for an aggregated turnover of 8 Billion euro)
EURAQUA: 26 major European Research Performing Organisations
EWA: 20 European associations distributed in corporate members, Research members and Sponsor members.
The WaterCampus Leeuwarden with its different types of partners for a co-funding thematic targeted education, research and innovation projects, globally sharing innovation insights (20 Universities of 10 European countries, 200 companies from 19 countries with different status of memberships).

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