THE WATER INNOVATION DAY OF THE WATER CLUSTER OF CATALONIA RECOGNIZES THE BEST R&D PROJECT IN THE CONTEXT OF WATER SHORTAGE

Last February 23, the Water Innovation Day organized by the Catalan Water Partnership took place, an event that brought together 150 experts, professionals and academics from the water sector, focused on sharing R&D projects and innovative solutions for the sustainable management of water in contexts of water scarcity such as the one Catalonia is currently experiencing.

As part of this event, the best R+D projects chosen by those attending the conference were recognized. The awarded projects were in first place the EVO project, presented by the University of Barcelona and as finalists the AtmosphAir project presented by the company DAM Aguas and which in the project consortium has the companies B’GEO, SPIN, Sorigué and Aeris with and Reaqua from the Beta Center of the University of Vic. Projects focused on the remediation of contaminated soils, the mitigation of greenhouse gases in WWTPs and the reuse of water in the meat industry, respectively

They had previously been presented in the R&D project category, apart from the finalists and the winner: ABM with the Aquatwins project, Cetaqua with Guardian, Leitat with Houseful, Aeris with Hydrousa, ICRA with Multisource, IDAEA-CSIC with Restora, University of Girona with Sherlock, Autonomous University of Barcelona with Sirah and Eurecat with Suggesterix. Many of these projects have several companies and universities participating in them, so they are a representation of the collective effort of more than 30 entities in the Catalan water sector. In terms of solutions, innovative solutions by companies participated in Amphos21 with AquaWELLS, Dupont with Dupont B-Free Technology, Optral with Monitoring systems for water collection and transport infrastructures, Aonchip with Watersens and Ulbios with Ulbios Water.

The welcome event also featured the interventions of Jordi Cros, president of the Catalan Water Partnership, who remarked that the day was an opportunity to learn about the most advanced R&D projects, and that they are the ones that will help us in the future to give a better answer and remembered that this 2023 the cluster will celebrate its 15th anniversary. Then Samuel Reyes, director of the ACA, spoke, who emphasized the necessary involvement of all actors and the Agency’s commitment to innovation as a strategic axis and the necessary investment to promote digitization, which are also part of the solutions for the drought.

During the event, Enric Queralt from CUADLL presented the main results of the Aquifer project, financed in the program of the Interreg Sudoe call, in which a platform has been developed for the preservation, monitoring and integral management of aquifers and which has allowed the development of a pilot in the Baix Llobregat.

Finally, the session ended with a speech by Jaime García Cantero, director of content at Retina ElPaís, who gave the presentation “Policrisis or permacrisis? Innovation before the end of abundance”