WEAM4i project participated at the Joint kick-off meeting of "Water Innovation in Action" projects

The Joint kick-off meeting of "Water Innovation in Action" projects took place on the 24th January 2014 at the CHARLEMAGNE building in Brussels. It was organized by the European Commission DG Research & Innovation which launched last year a call for project that resulted in approving funding for 11 new projects aiming at promoting innovative solutions for water-related challenges. The projects, which involve the collaboration of 179 partners from research organizations and private companies (more than 70 partners are SMEs), will lead to the effective implementation of European directives and policies while creating market opportunities for European industry and SMEs. Furthermore, they will contribute to the aims of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Water.

The €50 million funds are included in the 2013 Environment call of the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) and will involve partners from 19 European countries.

The meeting was very successful, and the attendance exceptional, exceeding organizers estimations. It was also an occasion to discuss the key challenges of the water-related initiatives at the European and International level and explore the possibilities offered by the leverage of different funding instruments (Horizon 2020, structural funds, etc.).

Sergio de Campos (ADASA Sistemas) project technical coordinator presenting WEAM4i in Brussels, 24/01/2014 Photo: Meteosim

For WEAM4i project, it was a good occasion to contact with other projects representatives such as SAID (SmArt water management with Integrated Decision support system) project for potential synergies and collaborations as well as with EC responsibles and officers to clarify all the administrative and contracting questions. WEAM4i project was represented by: Sergio de Campos (ADASA Sistemas): Technical coordinator Armando Javier Palomar (Meteosim): Administrator coordinator Remco Dost (Eleaf)

Following the discussion that took place in Brussels, in the coming months a follow up will be organized and the organizers will monitor the opportunities of coordinating other joint actions.

Finally, the projects representatives were asked to keep the Commission updated on the dissemination events they expect to organize in the framework of their projects.

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WEAM4i (Water and Irrigation Management for Advanced Energy) is a European project co-funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework Program for RTD within ENV-2013-WATER-INNO-DEMO-1 (Challenge 6.3: Improving resource efficiency) with a budget of 7.6 M € over 42 months, and started officially on November 1^st, 2013. The aim of the project is to improve the efficiency of water use and reduce the costs of power irrigation systems. The WEAM4i consortium is led by companies Meteosim and ADASA Sistemas, and is composed of 17 members from different fields - business, research, irrigation communities and public agencies and organizations - from five European countries: Spain, Germany, Portugal, The Netherlands and France. The project addresses two of the priorities outlined by the European Innovation Partnership on Water, an initiative of the European Commission (DG- Environment): ‘Water- Energy Nexus’ and ‘Decision Support Systems (DSS) and monitoring’. On the one hand, it is planned to develop a smart network for the management of irrigation that will act interactively on the rational use of water and energy; that is, demand-based management able to optimize the available offer. In this way, irrigation systems will benefit from the water storage capacity of farming communities and will consume the energy they need when it is cheaper. Furthermore, an integration model based on a service-oriented ICT platform will be used to obtain a prototype that allows applications to help in decision making related to irrigation at the field. As part of the project, the results will be tested and evaluated practically in three regions of the European Union covering a wide range of crops, water resources and energy markets: Aragon (Spain), Lower Saxony (Germany) and Alentejo (Portugal). 

See also: WEAM4i facebook page