WATERGRID’s objective is to develop and demonstrate the Smart Water Grid (SWG) concept for more climate resilient water management, particularly targeting extreme drought, but framed within Integrated Catchment Management, addressing the whole catchment in a holistic approach. The resource efficiency of Nature Based Solutions (NBS) previously established in eight sites will be analysed alongside the academic literature, forming an Evidence portfolio (Project Result 1 - PR1). Of these eight sites, five will be demonstrators, spread across the Atlantic, Continental, Mountain and Mediterranean biogeographical areas, with specific water scarcity challenges, NBS types and scales, in which 58 additional innovative and locally attuned NBS will be implemented to slow, move and actively store water for reuse as part of locally designed SWGs. Three validation sites will mainstream potential of the SWG approach and demonstrate replicability of the Project Results (PRs) that have been co-created and co-deployed with 138 stakeholders in a participatory approach. Protocols and standards will be developed, providing a step-by-step guide for the design, maintenance and operation of the SWG (PR2). A digital Platform (PR3) will display models of the catchment and a Design App will provide guidance to users on designing NBS into their SWGs. This Platform will be linked to a Monitoring programme (PR4) to display real time information via a Digital Twin to support long term maintenance of SWGs. An Operationalising toolkit (PR5) will create enabling social, governance and economic environments for sustainable SWGs. Finally, at least three Policy briefs (PR6) will display SWG benefits to various policies, from the EU to the local scale. By 2035, WATERGRID expects to increase by 20% the water available for usage to compensate scarcity, decreasing 7 types of water pollutants and saving 10.6M €/year through 37 SWGs across Europe.

Land, food, energy, water and climate are interconnected, comprising a coherent system (the ‘Nexus’), dominated by complexity and feedback. The integrated management of the Nexus is critical to secure the efficient and sustainable use of resources. Barriers to a resource efficient Europe are policy inconsistencies and incoherence, knowledge gaps, especially regarding integration methodologies and tools for the Nexus, and knowledge and technology lock-ins. SIM4NEXUS will develop innovative methodologies to address these barriers, by building on well-known and scientifically established existing “thematic” models, simulating different components/“themes” of the Nexus and by developing: (a) novel complexity science methodologies and approaches for integrating the outputs of the thematic models; (b) a Geoplatform for seamless integration of public domain data and metadata for decision and policy making; (c) a Knowledge Elicitation Engine for integrating strategies at different spatial and temporal scales with top down and bottom up learning process, discovering new and emergent knowledge, in the form of unknown relations between the Nexus components and policies/strategies; (d) a web-based Serious Game for multiple users, as an enhanced interactive visualisation tool, providing an immersive experience to decision- and policy-makers. The Serious Game will assist the users (as players) in better understanding and visualising policies at various geo-/spatial scales and from a holistic point of view, towards a better scientific understanding of the Nexus. The Serious Game will be validated (applied, tested, verified and used) via ten Case Studies ranging from regional to national level. Two further Strategic Serious Games at European and Global levels will also be developed for demonstration, education and further exploitation purposes, accompanied by a robust business plan and IPR framework, for taking advantage of the post-project situation and business potential.

Water is central to all human activities, to all components of the EU Green Deal and to several UN SDGs. The Water4All Partnership aims at enabling water security for all on the long term through boosting systemic transformations and changes across the entire research – water innovation pipeline, fostering the matchmaking between problem owners and solution providers. It gathers more than 70 partners, R&I funders, environment ministries, local authorities, European, national and regional-scale networks, research performing organisations. It will collaborate with other relevant R&I initiatives. Water4All proposes a portfolio of multi-national, cross-sectoral activities, targeting a variety of actors, intending to generate the following outputs: - Strengthen the water R&I collaboration at European and international levels, across at least 31 countries, notably through Joint Transnational Calls - Coordinate and leverage the activities of the Water R&I community - Support and promote the demonstration and access to market of innovative solutions - Produce, share and better communicate water-related knowledge & data, from local to global scales - Enhance talent development of water R&I professionals - Foster capacity development and life-long training of water policy-makers, stakeholders and civil society - Design & implement approaches for participatory development of innovation Water4All will run its activities across 7 themes of its strategic agenda: water for circular economy; water for ecosystems and biodiversity; sustainable water management; water and health; water infrastructure; international cooperation; water governance. Water4All’s outputs will contribute to: - Deliver sound knowledge, tools and evidence basis on water for policy- & decision-making - Improve consideration of water impacts in all relevant policies - Enhance the field/market use of innovative solutions to water challenges - Increase citizens’ awareness and engagement for an inclusive water

Water, energy, food, and ecosystems (WEFE) are interconnected, comprising a coherent system (nexus) dominated by complexity and modulated by climatic and socio-economic drivers. Resource constraints, and their interconnectedness could hamper economic development, including optimal trade, market and policy solutions. Moreover, policy objectives tend to be developed with little consideration to multiple sectors, and policy implementation may change nexus characteristics, in turn affecting actor behaviour and policy formulation. NEXOGENESIS will develop and validate: (a) a coherent cross-sectoral policy-making framework at different scales addressing climate and socio-economic change, as well as stakeholder behaviour and transboundary (diplomacy) issues, developed for and validated by stakeholders, policy makers, and academics; (b) a Self-Learning Nexus Assessment Engine (SLNAE) exploiting reinforcement learning, and supporting streamlining water-related policies into the WEFE nexus; (c) a WEFE Nexus Footprint, accompanying the SLNAE. NEXOGENESIS will apply its approach to four European and one case study in southern Africa. Through the case studies, strong stakeholder engagement and validation of output, NEXOGENESIS will improve policies and policy making processes to enhance cooperation and help the EU achieve targets related to the Water Framework Directive, the greener CAP, Green Deal ambitions, as well as ambitions on water diplomacy. NEXOGENESIS outcomes, both during and after the project, will have a major impact on advancing nexus understanding and governance, resulting in a more innovative and more competitive European Union regarding nexus policy-making, backed up by state-of-the-art evidence. NEXOGENESIS will continue to drive impact after the end of the funding period through dedicated outscaling and exploitation objectives to maximise future impacts and will bring project results to extended group of users via an innovative stakeholder engagement process.

There are estimated to be 3.2 million km of sewers in Europe. Their inspection technology is based on human analysis of CCTV images. Often condition of sewers is just not known. This leads to failures such as property flooding and wastewater spills via storm sewer overflows into rivers. PIPEON will develop robotic and AI technologies for autonomous sewer inspection and maintenance. Robots are rugged-by-design working in the corrosive and abrasive sewer environment. They move over different surfaces, above and within the wastewater. Dexterous manipulators install flow monitors and remove blockages of different sizes made from materials such as textiles, fats and grease. Sensors, sensor fusion and sensor perception ML algorithms for feature and anomaly detection facilitate navigation and mapping in self-similar/featureless sewers and risk-aware mission planning methods reduce the risk of robot failure. All these tools will be developed with computationally bounded resources so that robots are able to operate for days. The use of robots automatically determining defect type and size will reduce the cost or inspecting sewer networks by at least one order of magnitude if not more. The reduction in cost “floods” water utilities with data and allows delivers the right maintenance at the right time leading to almost “defect-free” sewer operation. Removing blockages quickly will reduce sewage spills into rivers by an estimated 30% of current numbers. This will intelligently enhance protection of Europe’s rivers and meet Europe’s zero-pollution ambitions in a sustainable, climate friendly way. The team includes scientists from leading European research groups in robotics, in-pipe sensing, mapping, manipulation and the modelling and management of sewer networks. Leading SMEs in the areas of AI based sewer data analysis, and robotics bring knowledge of exploitation pathways. Three water utilities bring case study networks and knowledge of practical application.