News & Events
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The third Newsletter from the STEP-WISE project is available: http://www.spi-water.eu/index.cgi?s_id=67
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The intermediate level of our eLearning is open for the public.
Let our advisors give you tasks, collect information through the WISE-RTD webportal and let them evaluate your results on the fly!
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The WISE-RTD Association will actively participate to the third event of the Science Policy Interface (SPI) activity under the WFD Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) framework on "Water science meets policy: How to streamline knowledge to address WFD challenges?".
The event will take place in Brussels on Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 November 2012.
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Today marks the 40th anniversary of the US Clean Water Act that was first enacted (under its original name of the Water Pollution Control Act) on October 18th 1972. More information on http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/Media-Center/News-by-Topic/Wildlife/2012/10-17-12-The-Clean-Water-Act-Turns-40.aspx
The policy user entry in WISE-RTD based on the Clean Water Act will be soon available.
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The STEP-WISE and STREAM projects are coming to an end in December 2012. To further disseminate their results, experiences and the WISE-RTD Water Knowledge Portal, a two-day conference is being organized.The Final Conference of STEP-WISE and STREAM is designed to bring together experts, researchers, policy and decision makers, practitioners from various water-related disciplines as well as concerned stakeholders for an interdisciplinary exchange of views on improving the water management through better communication between policy, science and industry.
The conference will particularly focus on:
- Results from the projects’ dissemination activities throughout Europe.
- Results and impressions from the Gap Analysis between policy and science communication.
- Advancement of knowledge dissemination through WISE-RTD Water Knowledge Portal
- Innovative ways of creating an interdisciplinary water management.
- Breaking down identified barriers that impede the adoption of the developedapproaches and concepts as well as to ensure a successful knowledge transfer.Who should attend the Final Conference?
- Policy makers and implementers at EU, Regional and Local levels
- Researchers from private/ public research institutes
- Young researchers (MA, PhD, Post DOC) from private/ public research institutes
- Water experts from SMEs operating in the water technologies
- Industry consultants dealing with water issues
- Other EU and non EU water professionalsTentative Conference Programme
The conference will commence on Monday 3 December 2012 with a full day of interesting presentations and discussions. In the morning there will be plenary sessions with Key Note speakers. On the afternoon there will be parallel tracks with sessions and panel discussions. On Tuesday 4 December, the delegates will be invited to attend a session at the European Parliament discussing the barriers for water policy implementations and recommendations based on the projects’ results.The final programme can be found on www.spi-water.eu. No registration fee will be requested.
Join us and disseminate your results:
All EU water projects dealing with the issues of policy/science/industry communication interested in disseminating their results are welcome to submit an abstract. More information on www.spi-water.eu -
The 12th edition of Green Week, the biggest annual conference on European environment policy, took place from 22 to 25 May 2012 in Brussels. This year’s theme was “Water”. Over some 40 sessions, the conference focused on water. Green Week offered a unique opportunity for debate and exchanges of experience and best practice. Over the past decade, the conference has established itself as an important event for anyone involved with protecting the environment. The 2011 edition attracted some 3 160 participants from government, business and industry, non-governmental organisations, academia and the media.The STEP-WISE Project presented the WISE-RTD Water Knowledge Portal on two different occasions:
- 23 of May 2012 16.30 – 18:00 during the session of “WISE - Water Information System for Europe - your gateway to information on European Water Issues”, Dr. Guido Vaes, Managing Director WISE-RTD Association has spoken about “ WISE-RTD : Easy Access to Water Policy Related RTD Projects” .
- 24th May 2012 14.30 – 18:00 during the “ Trickle-down effect? Science and evidence-based environmental policy making”
Xenia Theodotou-Schneider from XPRO Consulting presented at the 16.30 session “Connecting the Dots of Policy and Science through the WISE-RTD Water Knowledge Portal”.
This session was open to all interested including the general public.
You can find both presentations at the STEP‑WISE webpage and at the http://ec.europa.eu/environment/greenweek/ - A poster explaining the WISE-RTD Water Knowledge Portal was displayed throughout the Green Week in the Charlemagne Conference Centre Brussels.
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STEP-WISE attended with success the 6th World Water Forum held in Marseille (France) from 12 till 16 March 2012. The Forum provided discussions, important debates, solutions and best practice sharing in order to achieve concrete solutions and commitments for the cause of water. 140 ministerial delegations, more than 180 countries, over 800 speakers and in total 35 000 participants attended the Forum.
Together with the two other projects of the SPI-Water cluster (STREAM and WaterDiss2.0), STEP-WISE shared a booth in front of the European Commission Pavilion. The three projects together welcomed more than 500 visitors from all over the world, like policy implementers, mayors, directors, consultants, researchers, analysts and students from the EU and other parts of the world.
Our enthusiastic STEP-WISE-team provided interested visitors with information about the new WISE-RTD Water Knowledge Portal. They distributed newsletters, policy briefs and poster handouts and demonstrated the WISE-RTD on the internet. Almost 300 people left their contact information to stay informed about STEP-WISE and the WISE-RTD Water Knowledge Portal.
During the 6th World Water Forum, STEP-WISE organised two side-events on 14 and 15 March 2012 discussing “The Dissemination of Water Research Results and Their Impact on Economic Growth and Social Welfare”. Key-note speakers Dr. Thierry Davy, representative of the French Water Agencies to the European Commission presented on the 14 March and Dr. Philippe Quevauviller, EC Scientific Officer and Professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium spoke on the 15 March. The side-events resulted in some interesting discussions on how to improve knowledge transfer and communication between water researchers, policy-makers, policy-implementers and other water professionals.
A joint session of the European process and the Thematic process of the 6th World Water Forum (targets CS3.1 and EU10) was organised to address issues based on the two targets’ reports established during the 6th WWF preparatory process. This highly interactive joint session addressed the main challenge to establish long-term mechanisms for connecting permanently and efficiently water research and policy worlds with a view in creating water evidence-based policies. The session highlighted the challenges associated with water resources management that require a solid scientific and innovation support to be successful. Dialogue between science and policy is not that obvious. That implies that great collaboration is required in the reconciliation of the timings of research and policy, common question identification and to identify and associate together all the actors.
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