The NextGen initiative will evaluate and champion innovative and transformational circular economy solutions and systems that challenge embedded thinking and practices around resource use in the water sector. We will produce new understandings to underpin the exploitation of techniques and technologies that enhance our ability to recover, refine, reuse, repurpose, capture value from, and extend the use-life of, an ever-increasing range of resources and products, thereby projecting the European water and allied sectors as global circular economy pioneers. NextGen will demonstrate innovative technological, business and governance solutions for water in the circular economy in ten high-profile, large-scale, demonstration cases across Europe, and we will develop the necessary approaches, tools and partnerships, to transfer and upscale. The circular economy transition to be driven by NextGen encompasses a wide range of water-embedded resources: water itself (reuse at multiple scales supported by nature-based storage, optimal management strategies, advanced treatment technologies, engineered ecosystems and compact/mobile/scalable systems); energy (combined water-energy management, treatment plants as energy factories, water-enabled heat transfer, storage and recovery for allied industries and commercial sectors) and materials (nutrient mining and reuse, manufacturing new products from waste streams, regenerating and repurposing membranes to reduce water reuse costs, and producing activated carbon from sludge to minimise costs of micro-pollutant removal). The project mobilises a strong partnership of water companies, industry, specialised SMEs, applied research institutes, technology platforms, city and regional authorities and builds on an impressive portfolio of past research and innovation projects, leveraging multiple European and global networks guaranteeing real impact.

The ultimate purpose of ANYWHERE is to empower exposed responder institutions and citizens to enhance their anticipation and pro-active capacity of response to face extreme and high-impact weather and climate events. This will be achieved through the operational implementation of cutting-edge innovative technology as the best way to enhance citizen's protection and saving lives. ANYWHERE proposes to implement a Pan-European multi-hazard platform providing a better identification of the expected weather-induced impacts and their location in time and space before they occur. This platform will support a faster analysis and anticipation of risks prior the event occurrence, an improved coordination of emergency reactions in the field and help to raise the self-preparedness of the population at risk. This significant step-ahead in the improvement of the pro-active capacity to provide adequate emergency responses is achievable capitalizing on the advanced forecasting methodologies and impact models made available by previous RTD projects, maximizing the uptake of their innovative potential not fully exploited up to now. The consortium is build upon a strong group of Coordinators of previous key EC projects in the related fields, together with 12 operational authorities and first responders institutions and 6 leading enterprises of the sector. The platform will be adapted to provide early warning products and locally customizable decision support services proactively targeted to the needs and requirements of the regional and local authorities, as well as public and private operators of critical infrastructures and networks. It will be implemented and demonstrated in 4 selected pilot sites to validate the prototype that will be transferred to the real operation. The market uptake will be ensured by the cooperation with a SME and Industry Collaborative Network, covering a wide range of sectors and stakeholders in Europe, and ultimately worldwide.

RECONECT aims to contribute to European reference framework on Nature Based Solutions (NBS) by demonstrating, referencing and upscaling large scale NBS and by stimulating a new culture for 'land use planning' that links the reduction of risks with local and regional development objectives in a sustainable way. To do that, RECONECT draws upon the network of carefully selected Demonstrators and Collaborators that cover a range of local conditions, geographic characteristics, governance structures and social/cultural settings to successfully upscale NBS throughout Europe and Internationally. The RECONECT consortium is a transdisciplinary partnership between researchers, industry partners (SMEs and large consultancies) and responsible agencies at the local and watershed/regional level dedicated to achieve the desired outcomes of the project.