EU funding opportunities for water

Ewa Bloch UK National Contact Point for Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 5

@eco_uk

• UK’s innovation agency - a national public body set up in 2007 by the Government to stimulate business innovation

• 250 people, mostly from business

• Responsible for investing over £560m per year in innovation

• £3bn invested jointly with business in R&D and innovation

• 5,000 businesses and 150 research organisations

• Fund and connect activities

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Who we are

Sector focus to accelerate growth

Emerging and Enabling Technologies

Identifying and investing in technologies and capabilities that will lead to the new products, processes and services of tomorrow

Health and Life Sciences

Focused on agriculture and food and healthcare, underpinned by bioscience and medical research and enabled by engineering and physical sciences

Infrastructure Systems

Optimising transport and energy systems and, in an urban context, integrating them with other systems such as health and digital in an urban context

Manufacturing and Materials

Advancing manufacturing readiness so R&D and technology developments increase productivity and capture value in the UK

Our budget

Official Sensitive

Infrastructure Systems

• Energy generation & supply

• Energy Systems

• Transport Systems

• Urban Living

Current situation

- Weekly updates to guidelines

- We will only know the impact of the vote on 2016 and 2017 calls when they close

- Statements of Comm Moedas and Minister Jo Johnson

- Statement from HM Treasury underwriting all successful projects, submitted before Brexit date

- Updated guidelines for evaluators

- We continue to provide Horizon 2020 information and support to UK organisations

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Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 5

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• Societal Challenge 5 – Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials

• 2017 calls opening shortly

• Launched in Brussels on 14th September 2016 • UK information day on 23rd November in Birmingham

• Deadline 7th March 2017 (for 2016 Stage 1 proposals and single stage) • Budget available: €370m in 2017

Key aspects of H2020 Environment

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• Emphasis on integrated solutions

• Academia-industry (and public sector) collaboration

• International collaboration

• Market impact

• Focus on pilot and demonstration, cost efficiency and scalability,

and sustainability

• User engagement

The value of water

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Rationale: Water resources are under pressure from climate change, urbanisation, pollution,

overexploitation of fresh resources and increasing competition between various user groups

Improvement of the state of water resources (quality and quantity) will trigger significant economic benefits. Europe has a strong potential to become world leader in water innovation – 9.000 SMEs active in the water sector, 600.000 direct jobs in water utilities. Just 1% increase of the rate of growth could create up to 20.000 jobs.

The world market for drinking and waste water €250bn in 2008, investments over €33bn per annum. The cost of repairing damages (floods and droughts) is x6 higher than the cost of adaptation.

Focus on: Thematic priorities: water reuse and recycling, water and waste water treatment (incl.

recovery of resources), water and energy integration, flood and drought risk management, and the role of ecosystem services in the provision of water related services.

Horizontal priorities: water governance, decision support system and monitoring, and financing for innovation.

Nature-based solutions

Rationale:

To establish Europe as a leader in innovation through nature-based solutions (solutions inspired and supported by nature, while maintaining and/or enhancing natural capital) for improving our economic, social and environmental resilience

Focus on:

Demonstration activities in urban areas

Front-runner (lighthouse) and follower cities’ model (min. 2 front-runners and 3 followers) projects

International cooperation encouraged, esp. China

Projects should seek to identify additional, complementary and follow-up funding (private and public), in particular European Structural and Investment Funds (ERDF)

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Water-related areas of support

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Towards the next generation of water systems and services (2017) Large scale demonstration activities focusing on developing the urban water services of the future, going beyond waster supply sustainability (for example integration of management of water resources and provision of water services, re-use of treated wastewater and the use of desalinated water)

– TRL 5-7, Innovation Action 70%, €10m min. EU contribution, min. 3 partners from 3 countries, opens 2016

Large scale demonstrators on nature-based solutions for hydro-meteorological risk reduction at watershed/landscape level (2017) Focus on floods, droughts, storm surges and landslides, proposing nature-based solutions as an alternative to traditional engineering. Building territorial, socio-economic and ecological resilience and coherence in rural and natural areas to cope with climate change, natural hazards and ecosystem degradation

– Innovation Action 70%, €12m min. EU contribution, min. 3 partners from 3 countries, opens 2016 Nature-based solutions for inclusive urban regeneration (incl. deprived districts and neglected/abandoned areas) (2017) Focus on the role of nature-based, urban regeneration solutions in reshaping the built environment and enhancing social inclusion and quality of life. Incl. integrated urban and land use planning

– Innovation Action 70%, €10m min. EU contribution, min 5 countries: 2 front-runner and 3 follower cities, opens 2016

Bottom up opportunities: SME Instrument

Case study - INCOVER

- 18 partners, from Spain, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, France and the UK (UK partner – Isle Utilities Ltd)

- €8.41 m total budget (EC contribution €7.2m), 3 years

- Innovative Eco-Technologies for Resource Recovery from Wastewater

- Three plants treating wastewater from three case-studies (municipalities, farms and food and beverage industries) will be implemented, assessed and optimised concurrently at demonstration scale in order to achieve TRL 7-8 to ensure straightforward up scaling to 100,000 population equivalents (PE). Monitoring and control via optical sensing and soft-sensors to improve production efficiency.

- INCOVER solutions will reduce at least a 50% overall operation and maintenance cost of wastewater treatment through the use of wastewater as a source for energy demand and added-value production to follow UE circular economy strategy.

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Other upcoming opportunities

Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative (SUGI) ERANET – focus on food-energy-water nexus – launch in December 2016

• Cooperation between 31 funders from around the world, €31m for a joint call

• 2 European and at least one non-European partner

• Coordinated on behalf of Innovate UK by the Future Cities Catapult

Infrastructure Systems competition – opens in January 2017

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• Knowledge Transfer Network: thematic expertise, collaboration and networking opportunities (KTN water lead – Jonathan Abra)

• Enterprise Europe Network: basic and general information on Horizon 2020, coaching for the SME Instrument, local presence, international networking and collaboration (Enterprise Europe Network – Chris Woodward http://www.enterprise-europe.co.uk/)

• National Contact Points: specific information and support to Horizon 2020 applicants

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Support available

• Feedback to/from EC on work programmes

• Clarification of documentation and rules

• Guidance on choosing thematic priorities and instruments

• Scope queries with Project Officers

• Advice on administrative procedures and contractual issues

• Support with the application process (workshops and 1-2-1)

• Feedback on draft proposals

• Assistance with partner search, networking and brokerage

– through network support (EEN and KTN)

• Feedback on results

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NCP support

Thank you for your attention

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Ewa Bloch UK National Contact Point Climate change, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials Innovate UK ewa.bloch@innovateuk.gov.uk LinkedIn: ewabloch Twitter: eco_uk Register for updates on www.h2020uk.org