RDI projects
RDI projects
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Project Information |  |
| Name | Water Smart Connect |
| Start | 1.4.2024 |
| End | 31.5.2025 |
| Website | https://internationalcleantechnetwork.com/water-smart-connect/ |
| Status | Running |
| Contact | Bailey Lähdesmäki |
| Description | Water Smart Connect will take its starting point in seven focus regions; Sjælland (DK), Pohjois-Savo (FI), Centre-
Val de Loire (FR), Occitanie (FR), Friesland (NL), Aragon (SP) and Catalonia (SP). These regions were selected for the consortia based on valuable involvement in Water Smart Territories (WST), their capacities and variety of the regional ecosystems (for example, Water-Food-Energy nexus), connections with industry actors, innovation maturity, the broad variety of water related challenges they cover (due to different climatic conditions) and their smart specialisation strategies (S3). Together with the partners, the project will assess the capabilities, potentials and priorities in their innovation ecosystems to identify opportunities for transformative activities (TA) in relation to their S3 smart specialisation strategies. The model has three core objectives: 1. Ensure a focus on TAs and create according action plans; 2. Provide a process to implement Synergy Diamond combined with cluster initiatives; 3. Enable cross-regional cooperation. This project will take a threefold approach to “unpick” the relevant regional S3 regional strategies via cross-regional innovation within the water-smart focus area, by: 1. Identifying Transformative Activities through prioritisation of key water-smart innovation areas; 2. Developing Cross Regional Actions by creating key actions to drive a water-smart society; 3. Setting-up the long-term joint actions plan by bringing together the cross-regional actions and driving matchmaking activities in preparation for implementation. Based on the above 3-step approach, the specific objectives (SO) of the project are the following: SO1: Map and analyse regional capacities and potentials for a Water-Smart Society. This will be done by: a. Analysing regional innovation agendas, strategies, plans and activities utilising input from other initiatives (for example, Water Smart Territories) (WP2); b. Identifying and convening key ecosystem stakeholders within the sectors and regions (WP2); c. Mapping sector specific challenges and potentials for regional competitive advantage and develop 1 SWOT analysis per focus region (WP2); d. Identifying complementarities and gaps across regions (WP2); SO2: Identify at least 7 TAs (at least one per region) with potential to drive water-smart transformation across EU ecosystems by: a. Convening ecosystem stakeholders within the sectors to identify technical, market and industrial niches with promising growth potential (WP3); b. Identifying TAs which can be developed through cross-regional and cross-sectoral strategy/partnership building (WP3); SO3: Develop one joint cross-regional actions plan within identified water-smart areas by: a. Identifying financing- and ecosystem support mechanisms (WP3); b. Identifying regional and cross regional actions for co-creation, co-planning and co-investments with a focus on PPI, matchmaking, R&D projects and development of critical skills (WP4); c. Developing recommendations for implementation and monitoring WP4); SO4: Prepare the ground for implementation of the joint actions plan for cross sectoral and cross regional collaboration by: a. Disseminating the actions plan, success criteria and parameters for monitoring to key stakeholders in the focus regions and across the EU (WP5), b. Adapt an existing platform which can (WP5): I. Connect innovators with public and private buyers; II. Provide innovators with visibility to potential investors and partners; III. Connect startups and SMEs with universities and RTOs; IV. Targeting gender and diversity equality within the platform SO5: Test and validate the S3-Innovation Model methodology for development of Transformational Actions to develop concrete actions for a Water-Smart Society. This will be done by: a. Incorporating a proven methodology as the backbone of the work package tasks (WP1); b. Evaluating and adjus |
| Partners | Aquanova (FR), Clean (DK), Catalan Water Partnership (ES), Zinnae (ES), Water Alliance (NL) |
| Funded by | Horizon Europe |