Consortium

IHE Delft is the largest international graduate water education facility in the world and is based in Delft, the Netherlands. Since 1957 the Institute has provided water education and training to more than 20.000 water professionals from over 160 countries, the vast majority from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Also, numerous research and institutional strengthening projects are carried out in partnership to strengthen capacity in the water sector worldwide. Through our overarching work on capacity development, IHE Delft aims to make a tangible contribution to achieving all Sustainable Development Goals in which water is key.

The Institute has vast experience in research projects and led the EU FP6 project SWITCH (Sustainable city of the future), the FP7 projects KULTURisk and PEARL (Preparing for Extreme and Rare Events in Coastal Regions), Groundtruth 2.0, AfriAlliance and RECONECT. IHE Delft is a partner in many other projects including FP7 WeSenseIt, Waternomics and DemEAUMed, and in the Horizon 2020 funded projects, SCENT and SIM4NEXUS.

KWR Water Research Institute generates knowledge to enable the water sector to operate water-wisely in our urbanised society. At KWR, we have a sense of professional and social responsibility for the quality of water. Our scientific findings and the resulting practical innovations contribute, worldwide, to a sustainable water provision in the urban water cycle. ‘Bridging science to practice’ is KWR’s motto. Our researchers work at the interface of science, business and society. Their strength lies in their translation of scientific knowledge into applicable, practical solutions for end-users in the Dutch and international water sector. We have built a solid reputation as top-level innovation accelerators and international network builders, and increasingly play a coordinating role in national and international collaborations.

KWR has managed and conducted the Joint Research Programme with Dutch and Flemish water companies for more than thirty years. KWR has ample experience with the overall coordination of integrated EU funded research projects such as TECHNEAU (FP6), MICRORISK (FP6), PREPARED (FP7), DEMEAU (FP7), SUBSOL (H2020), SCREENCAP (CIP-ECO), , EuSeME (EU-JUST), NextGen (H2020-ongoing) and ULTIMATE (H2020-ongoing). KWR participates further in several EU-funded projects, including the prestigious ERC Synergy Grant Project WATER-FUTURES (2021-2027). KWR is also in the coordination team of the ICT4WATER cluster (www.ict4water.eu) and leads the Watershare international collaboration network (www.watershare.eu)

Eurac Research is a private non-profit research centre established in 1992 in Bolzano, Italy. With over 450 staff members, its activities include local and international projects in cooperation with research institutions, government authorities and industry. Eurac has a turnover of about 46 million Euros and is currently the coordinator or project partner in approximately 80 different projects, among which 40 are under the scope of Horizon 2020.

Role in the project: Eurac will support the development of the nexus model providing knowledge and expertise on complex systems modelling and social-science participatory approaches. Contributing to interdisciplinary research activities, Eurac will co-develop WP2 on stakeholder behaviour and policy assessments as well as WP3 on the Nexus integration through a system dynamics model. Moreover, Eurac will be responsible for the Adige river basin case study (Italy).

Fondazione CMCC is a non-profit research institution. Its mission is to investigate and model our climate system and its interactions with society to provide reliable, rigorous, and timely scientific results, which will in turn stimulate sustainable growth, protect the environment, and develop science-driven adaptation and mitigation policies in a changing climate. CMCC collaborates with experienced scientists, economists, and technicians, which work together to provide full analyses of climate impacts on various systems such as agriculture, ecosystems, coasts, water and other natural resources, health, and economics. CMCC also supports policymakers in setting and assessing costs, mitigation, and adaptation policies.

The Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Germany, was established in 1991 as the first and only centre in the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres to be exclusively devoted to environmental research in a great variety of fields. It currently employs around 1200 people. Founded in response to the severe pollution prevailing in East Germany, the UFZ has become a world-wide acknowledged centre of expertise in the remediation and re-naturation of contaminated landscapes, as well as the preservation of biodiversity and natural landscapes.

UFZ is and was participating in more than 100 projects funded within FP7 and Horizon 2020, 40 of them coordinated by UFZ (collaborative and individual projects). UFZ is or was the host for 3 ERC grants, 2 Starting Grants and 1 Advanced Grant, and has coordinated 3 ITNs. UFZ is leading the European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC-ICM) funded by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

Since 2020, UFZ leads the Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) PPP (H2020) to implement the European LTER (eLTER), European long-term ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological systems research infrastructure PLUS, listed on the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmap.

Eurecat is currently the leading Technology Centre in Catalonia, and the second largest private research organization in Southern Europe. Eurecat’s R&D, innovation and training activities span from Industrial Technologies (metallic, plastic and composite materials, manufacturing processes, autonomous and professional robotics, functional printing and fabrics, simulations, sustainability and Chemistry) to Digital Technologies (Digital Humanities, Big Data Analytics, IT Security and Smart Management Systems, e-health, data mining and multimedia technologies), Sustainability (water, air, soil, waste, energy and environmental impact), and Biotech (Omic science and Nutrition & health).

Role in the project: In NEXOGENESIS, Eurecat will bring the project their expertise and experience on data analytics and specifically, in deep reinforcement learning for better understanding about the implication of policies in the nexus variables. For this Eurecat is co-leading hte Eurecat’s role is based on data value chain management (collection-Information- Knowledge-Intelligence) by means of research, design and development of solutions (algorithms, methodologies, modules, mobile apps, platforms) through the combination of different technologies such as AI, machine learning, data analytics, optimization, and information and knowledge management. Finally, Eurecat is co-leading the work package dedicated to the development of a self-learning solution for nexus policy assessment.

Stichting Wageningen Research (Wageningen Research Foundation, WR) consists of specialised institutes for applied research contributing solutions to the grand challenges in the domain of healthy food and living environment, collaborating with Wageningen University under the external brand name Wageningen University & Research. This collaboration facilitates and encourages close cooperation between the approximately 3000 experts from Wageningen University and various renowned research institutes. Stichting Wageningen Research has a strong track record of multidisciplinary projects and is involved in hundreds of EU funded projects (FP7 and Horizon 2020) and many other large national and international research projects. The research institute involved in this proposal, Wageningen Economic Research (formerly known as LEI Wageningen UR), is the applied social and economic research institute within the legal entity Stichting Wageningen Research. It is an internationally leading socioeconomic research institute that offers governments and companies evidence and advice for sound policies and better decision-making.

NTUA, founded in 1837, is the oldest most prestigious educational technological institution of Greece with more than 420 faculty members. The Physical Geography and Environmental Impact Assessment Lab (GEO ENVI Lab) at School of Rural, Surveying & Geoinformatics Engineering (SRSGE) serves research & educational needs in the field of natural resources management, water-energy-food-climate Nexus, environmental impact assessment, climate change adaptation, environmental systems optimization and simulation, water/carbon footprint in agricultural and food sector, environmental policy and stakeholder engagement.

The Foundation, as subsidiary of Ca’ Foscari University, is the link that enhances University’s connections with the city of Venice, the region and the enterprises. CF Applied Economics is a centre of analysis and research in applied economics, established as an independent unit within the Fondazione. It has realized several consultancy projects for Italian companies, mainly related to the environmental and economic impact of investments. The main tools of analysis are numerical macroeconomic simulation models.

UNT is a multidisciplinary University including departments of Art and Human Sciences, Law and Economics, Letter-Language, Sciences and Technology, Medicine and Pharmacy. UNT provides internationally leading research in different fields with its 36 research laboratories, high-level education to its 30,000 students, and promotes innovation (startups) and scientific advice. The CNRS 7324 CITERES laboratory’s general research theme is the analysis of the spatial and territorial dynamics of societies. It has a long experience in addressing social sciences research for natural resources management. It co-leads a regional network MiDi active at international level regarding water and environment issues.

The Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University (UU) has over 250 employees and is one of the most complete such academic departments in Europe. Our primary mission is to improve the understanding of processes acting in the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere today, in the past and in the future, and how society can interact sustainably with those processes. UU will be participating in NEXOGENESIS by combining the expertise from the research disciplines Environmental Analysis, Hydrology as well as Natural Resources and Sustainable Development, which in particular include research experience in relation to the influence of climate change, land use and pollution on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, an interdisciplinary understanding of hydrological and biogeochemical processes to resolve applied environmental challenges, policy analysis and organisation of stakeholders involvement, as well as different dimensions of sustainable development considering both natural and social systems and their interactions.

The University of Thessaly is a public University located in the region of Thessaly. High quality research is conducted at the University of Thessaly and it is a leading active institute with its several departments having a long history of participating in many EU and nationally funded projects. The research team of Prof. Laspidou at the Civil Engineering Department at UTH has worked in a wide range of topics related to water, such as water resources management, ICT and water, hydroinformatics, environmental, ecological and nexus informatics, eutrophication, ecological modelling, etc. Simulation of water systems, optimization of management schemes, assessment of the Water-Energy-Food-Climate-Land Nexus and Regional Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation through innovation  are some of the core research areas. Recently, the Civil Engineering Department has been successful in various national and European projects, including a first prize at the EUvsVirus Hackathon; Prof. Laspidou is the Vice-President of Research and Technology at Water Europe and the Chair of the COST Action CA20138 on the WEFE Nexus, while the team is active in the ICT4WATER cluster and the Nexus Project Cluster.

Baltic Environmental Forum – Latvia (BEF-Latvia) is a non-governmental organization established in 2003. Our goal is to promote the significance of environmental protection by developing co-operation and dialogue between various stakeholders and by increasing their capacities in implementation of environmental management. We aim at promoting environmental protection locally, regionally in the Baltic Sea Region and Europe-wide. We are working in an interdisciplinary team on a variety of environmental issues, such as water management, marine issues, energy efficiency, climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable urban & rural development policy, nature protection, chemicals policy & management, and waste policy, and also on innovative horizontal topics such as sustainable mobility, ecosystem services, and stakeholder acceptance & governance. Stakeholder involvement and application of the participatory approach in policy and development planning is a success factor of the BEF-Latvia activities. Since its establishment BEF-Latvia has developed and implemented large-scale projects targeted to the innovative themes for the Baltic Sea Region and participated in the EU cross-border programmes INTERREG, Horizon2020 and LIFE.

Jones & Wagener (JAWS) is a well-established firm with depth of experience that has been operating since 1966. Structural and Geotechnical engineering are the pillars on which the company was built.

To meet changing demands and challenges facing our clients, we have broadened our service offering to include Mine Infrastructure, Waste and Tailings disposal. More recently, we responded to environmental concerns with the establishment of our Environmental Engineering, Sciences and Management expertise.

In addition to our offices in South Africa, Jones & Wagener Ghana was established in 2018 to service Ghana and neighbouring West African countries. Jones & Wagener International was launched in the United Kingdom in 2021.

The quantitative WEF Nexus Index, which was developed in 2019/20 by JAWS, will be utilised as a point of departure for the WEFE Nexus Footprint that will be developed as part of this project, incorporating input from stakeholders. The WEFE Nexus Footprint will be utilised as an input into the tool for reinforcement learning. Further, the Footprint and data will be applied to the case studies being investigated in this project.

GAC Group is an international innovation consultancy firm specialised in innovation performance support (18M+ sales revenue in 2019). It was established in 2002 and employs 200+ specialists, mostly with PhD or MSc, spread across Europe, South America, Canada and Southeast Asia. The headquarters of the company are based near Paris, in Issy les Moulineaux, France; with offices in several cities of France, as well as in Romania, Singapore, Canada, Brazil & recently in Germany. The company has 6 departments: innovation, internationalisation, networks and platforms, economic studies (including innovation strategies, territorial innovation development, evaluation and impact assessment etc), financial performance, & human resource performance. Thus, GAC specialists provides 360° support to innovation and cover the whole expansion value chain

GAC recently integrated the team and projects of inno TSD (now GAC), specialists in supporting inter-regional and international collaboration for innovation (500+ projects implemented since 1986): cluster and SMEs internationalisation support, university‐industry cooperation, business incubator management, supporting start-ups and other innovative companies, impact maximisation, stakeholder engagement, as well as inter-regional connections and mutual learning activities.

Business Development Group (BDG) is a Romanian SME with over 25 years’ experience in offering services for economic and social development in Romania and neighbouring countries in South East Europe. BDG’s activity is focused on co-creation and implementing of innovative models to generate increased competitiveness in economic environments and stimulate social cohesion along with adaptation of institutional and legislative frameworks to ensure sustainable functionality of such models on long term.

BDG renders a wide range of services to include market assessment and institutional analysis, stakeholders’ involvement in participatory processes designing and validation of development scenarios, elaboration of public policies instruments for government and local authorities, management of platforms for public private cooperation, applied research into practice and upscaling of different innovative concepts. In our portfolio we have private clients and public institutions from Romania, EU and non-EU countries.

Dr. Tamara Avellán is an expert in inter- and transdisciplinary research design and implementation for natural resource management projects. With almost 10 years of experience in the United Nations System and 15+ years of work with or within research entities she has mastered understanding and bridging the divide of knowledge transfer for real-world impacts. She has published several Nexus-related publications in the past 5 years and is a sought after expert in this area, for instance as evaluator for EU Nexus-Project research calls.

Her company specializes in:

1. Knowledge transfer between and across stakeholders
2. Design and implementation of Stakeholder Management for Research and Development Projects
3. Evaluation of research impacts on policy and action
4. Design, management, and implementation of EU-funded projects for highly innovative SMEs

The Municipality of Nestos is one of the 3 Municipalities established in the Prefecture of Kavala in Greece, according to the current administrative division and a main tourist destination as it covers a long coastal area and the main connection between the Greek mainland and the island of Thassos. It is characterised as a rural municipality, not only due to its large lowland but because its inhabitants are working in the sectors of agriculture, aquaculture and trade of agricultural products. The Municipality, as a local authority, has the autonomy to implement policies that aim at the enhancement of the citizens’ lives and guarantee the sustainable growth of the area. Due to its more rural aspect, the Municipality organizes various festivals during the year related to the area’s customs and traditions and strongly supports initiatives of locals who want to extrovert the potential of the area. Half of the surface of Delta of River Nestos’s Delta is in the administrative boundaries of the Municipality of Nestos. Nestos River and its Delta create one of the most impressive natural sceneries, with unique wild life, river-banks forest, protected by RAMSAR and NATURA 2000 conventions.

Gotse Delchev Municipality is located in the Southwest Bulgaria in the valley of Mesta river. The region is surrounded by four mountains – Rila, Pirin, Rodopi and Slavyanka and is rich of water and forest resources. Part of the Pirin National Park is located on the territory of Gotse Delchev Municipality. The park accommodates under protection of about 2000 plant species including 70 endemic species and diverse fauna. Gotse Delchev region is among the richest regions in water in Bulgaria. The main sources are the surface and underground waters. In order to protect the unique natural features of the region – waters, flora and fauna, agricultural lands and clean air, the municipality pursues a systematic policy of protection and support. The policy includes efforts for development of all spheres of public life – education, health, economy, as well as appropriate infrastructure and regulations for the protection of biodiversity and intangible heritage. The municipal administration has established a special unit for the management of European funds since 2005. Up to now we have more than 35 million euro utilized funds for improving the living environment in the municipality.

Water Europe is the recognized voice and promoter of water-related RTD and innovation in Europe. It strives to increase coordination and collaboration, to enhance the performance of the water service providers, water users, and technology providers, in a sustainable and inclusive way, and to contribute to solving water-related societal challenges.  Water Europe envisions a Water-Smart society, in which the true value of water is recognised and realised, and all available water sources are managed in such a way that water scarcity and pollution of groundwater are avoided. Water and resource loops are largely closed to foster a circular economy and optimal resource efficiency, while the water system is resilient against the impact of climate change events. The strategy of Water Europe is driven by the ambition to realise the value of water for our society and our economy, and achieve a European Water-Smart Society, while providing excellent services to members. Its activities are organised in the following programmes: Collaboration, Advocacy and Market Programme, while they are supported by the Membership and Communications Pillar.