The growing water demand, coupled with the impacts of climate change are leading to an increase in water resources stress across Europe and the Mediterranean area. Moreover, water resources scarcity and climate change also lead to increased environmental stress on water bodies. Simultaneously, the European Union is struggling to move to a more autonomous, efficient and decarbonised energy system. And besides that, there is a clear trend to increasing electrical energy consumption, due to current and forecasted relevant changes in our energy consumption (electrical heating through heat pumps, electrical vehicles, …). There are strong links between energy and water systems, so if one aims to face the above-mentioned water issues, the water-energy nexus has to be considered.The aim of the Joint Master Degree Water and Energy (Watergy) is to provide a high-level, multi-national, research and industrial-oriented education in Water and Energy interactions. Its main objective is the education of Master graduates who have not only state-of-the-art training in the thematic area of the Water-Energy Nexus, but are specialized in Energy Transition, Technologies and Markets, Renewable Energy in Water Systems and Water Energy Mining developing higher skills and awareness to societal and industrial needs. The synergy among the Consortium Universities and their various scientific domains of specialization will give Master students the unique opportunity to develop knowledge and to become initiated to the research in a very wide range of branches of Hydraulic, Energy Engineering, Economics and Policy in Water Energy Sector, Circular Water Economy, etc, a goal that cannot be achieved within the currently existing Master’s courses in this field. The final objective is that the graduates from Watergy will be able to face the challenges of the requirements of energy production and management and their integration with water systems in the context of global change.

Food safety and food waste management remain two major challenges in Europe, with enormous effects on the economy, the environment and public health. Each year 23 million cases of foodborne illness and 5000 deaths are reported in Europe. At the same time, one third of food produced for human consumption is wasted because it is considered unfit for consumption, which amounts to approximately 1.3 billion tons each year. Therefore, the development of innovative measures to reduce food waste presents a viable alternative in a situation where new solutions are desperately required. In this sense, the development of circular economies that revalorize byproducts and residues of food industries as products that can be reused is a promising research avenue. WASTEtoSAFETY will confront this challenge by developing the scientific basis to implement a circular economy that uses waste from the citrus industry to extend the shelf life of fresh produce from the Mediterranean area. Namely, it will optimize two “green” methods (microwave & ultrasound) for the extraction of essential oils (EO) from orange peel. The EO will be used as the basis for two food preservation technologies: a washing solution and an active packaging. The project will also evaluate their potential impact on the food chain, through a quantitative microbiological risk assessment (QMRA), a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) combined with a Material Flow Analysis. WASTEtoSAFETY will thus provide tangible advances to the field of Food Science, developing a noticeable solution for the revalorization and utilization of citrus waste. It will also open new research avenues related to the upscaling of these technologies to an industrial level.

Population needs for Internet connectivity rely on carrier networks currently challenged by the ever-increasing network complexity, traffic volume, and dynamicity. Software Defined Networking (SDN) has entered the networking scene as an enabling technology that brings programmability to the network by decoupling the forwarding data-plane actions from the logic control-plane decisions through application programming interfaces. However, the variety of controllers governing different network segments and interfaces for control and management endangers actual carrier-grade SDN deployments. INvestigating SDN Programmability ImpRovING optical South- and North- bound Interfaces (INSPIRING-SNI) aims to enhance programmability in SDN ecosystems addressing two critical aspects. First, INSPIRING-SNI will control, manage and operate technology diverse environments through the SouthBound Interface (SBI) relying on innovative industry-driven standardization initiatives such as OpenROADM and the expertise of Dr. Garrich in experimental SDN applications for optical networks. Second, INSPIRING-SNI will develop an optimization-as-a-service (OaaS) framework for dynamic optimisation of multilayer backbone/metro networks (IP over optical) jointly with metro/access segments via the NorthBound Interface (NBI), greatly widening Dr. Garrich's background and empowering his career perspectives. The OaaS framework will be based on the open-source network planning tool Net2Plan, developed within the host group, that is receiving a growing international attention and funding from industry and academia. INSPIRING-SNI will include a strategic inter-sectorial secondment at TID to experimentally validate the SBI and NBI proposals and to provide to the host and Dr. Garrich a realistic perspective on telecom operator needs and challenges. INSPIRING-SNI is in-line with an expression of interest of the host institution and EU Research and Innovation effort on ICT.

Among the different global challenges that we are facing today, the energy crisis and freshwater scarcity represent two of the most critical ones, according to international institutions such as the World Health Organization and the International Energy Agency. Moreover, they are expected to worsen with rising populations and the industrialisation of emerging countries. To address these, sustainable and eco-friendly solutions are imperative. In this context, solar energy, an abundant and green resource, can be leveraged to meet both needs. PHOTEM will do so with an innovative approach that efficiently combines photothermal desalination with thermoelectric generation, driven by the development of novel high-performing and environmentally friendly materials. In this approach, photothermal materials (PTMs) directly convert solar energy into heat, facilitating the evaporation of clean water from seawater. Concurrently, the thermoelectric generator (TEG) uses the radiated waste heat from photothermal conversion process to generate electricity through the Seebeck effect. The project’s ambitious goal is to design, synthesize, and integrate these novel materials into a unified system that optimizes water evaporation rates and electricity generation while minimizing environmental impact. PHOTEM focuses on three key components: the PTM, the TEG, and the engineering of their integration (EOI). By advancing the efficiency of these components beyond the current state-of-the-art, the project aims to achieve high evaporation rates, improved solar evaporation efficiencies, and cost-effective, stable TEG. PHOTEM’s innovative approach aligns with global sustainability goals, offering a scalable and impactful solution to the intertwined issues of water and energy scarcity.

The EU is the world's largest food producer, but climate change, loss of biodiversity and scarcity of resources, among others, put food security at risk. It is necessary to boost and promote technologies in the agri-food sector that lead to a more sustainable production model adapted to climate change and thus reduce dependence on imports in an unstable geopolitical scenario. The AgrifoodTECH program, led by the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT), is designed to equip 16 postdoctoral researchers with the skills necessary to lead advancements in the agri-food technology sector, central to the Agriculture 4.0 revolution. This interdisciplinary training program encompasses 10 crucial knowledge areas addressing future agricultural challenges and integrates international and intersectoral experiences through collaborations with 14 associated entities for secondments. UPCT is a member of the European University of Technology (EUt+) and has been recognised by the EC HRS4R distinction for its positive and stimulating environment for researchers. UPCT is located in the Region of Murcia (Spain), where the agri-food sector is considered strategic and its digital transformation a priority in its RIS4Mur. AgrifoodTECH is poised to establish a pioneering postdoctoral program recognized internationally for its research excellence. This initiative aims to position both the University and the Region of Murcia at the forefront of agricultural innovation in the 21st century. Furthermore, it seeks to lay the groundwork for founding the first European Research Institute (ERI) dedicated to agri-food technology, spearheaded by UPCT. This endeavor will be bolstered by the contributions of postdocs trained under the AgrifoodTECH banner, ensuring a strong foundation for groundbreaking research and development in the sector.