Policies, Innovations and Networks for enhancing Opportunities for China Europe Water Cooperation

Abstract

This document presents the developments in the first 18 months of activity of LNEC in PIANO project (Policies, Innovation, and Network for Enhancing Opportunities for China-Europe Water Cooperation) financed by the European Union (Horizon 2020) and the Chinese Secretariat of China Water Platform Europe (China-Europe Water Platform, CEWP, http://cewp.org/), as key lessons learned from the Portuguese participation, led by Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC). PIANO project aims to strengthen cooperation in the field of water between Europe and China, promoting the creation of networks of enterprises (including SMEs), entrepreneurs, NGOs, policy makers, regulators and funding agencies to create social opportunities and business. The PIANO project objectives are (1) strengthening and expanding the existing network of the China Europe Water Platform (CEWP) to cover all relevant actors for water research and innovation relevant for China Europe water cooperation; (2) identification of European technological water innovations and areas for joint development of technological solutions that have a potential for implementation in China; (3)identification of drivers and barriers and elaborating strategies for overcoming such barriers and taking advantage of drivers for implementation and replication of technological water innovations; (4) promotion of knowledge exchange and policy dialogue to build an enabling environment for the uptake of technological water innovations with a great potential for implementation, further replication and market uptake in China; (5) consolidation of a shared strategic research and innovation agenda between Europe and China in the water domain; and, (6) effective dissemination and mainstreaming of the project results within China, Europe and worldwide to various target audiences. The priority research areas focus on societal challenges related to Agricultural water management (WP2_1.a), to Municipal water management (WP2_1.b), to Industrial water management (WP2_1.c), to river basin management highlighting the problem of floods (WP2_1.d) and to the Water for energy nexus (WP2_1.e). The project consortium is composed of nine partners of which eight are located in eight different EU Member States and one is based in China. The consortium encompasses partners from high level academic institutions and experienced research institutes to non for profit organizations, from European umbrella associations to a commercial SME and a large international company. The PIANO partners are supported in their activities by many Chinese institutes and research centres. LNEC leads the development of tasks (WP2_1d) and (WP2_1.e). In the case of the task "Water for Energy" LNEC has the support of EDP / Labelec. Within the activities led by LNEC an inventory of about 50 technological water innovative solutions (TWI) was developed in the thematic areas WP2_1.d and WP2_1.e. Later, following several prioritization criteria, 20 TWIs of each of both thematic areas were ranked in descending order of suitability and potential deployment opportunities in China. They are presented for discussion.