Veritas (water utility & coordinator of the Living Lab in Venice) organized and hosted the first meeting of the Community of Practice on December 16^th, 2021 within the H2020 B-WaterSmart project. This first meeting gathered stakeholders involved in the water sector from the whole Veneto Region: the Environmental and Agro-environmental directions of the Veneto Region, the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection and Prevention (ARPAV), the Environmental Sector of the Metropolitan City of Venice (Province), Reclamation Consortiums and other water authorities, industrial and other sectoral associations for agriculture, the Regional Association of Water Utilities, Universities and other research institutions. The participants that attended the event were mainly strategic representatives of each institution, and to a minor extent also some functionaries were involved.

The meeting started by presenting an overview of the B-WaterSmart project, with a focus on the Venice Living Lab (LL) challenges and its strategic objectives (long- and short-term goals). Then, some key speakers from the participants gave insights on some important topics related to the Venice LL challenges: agricultural and industrial water reuse; nutrient recovery; sludge valorization (both from the regional authority and the water utility perspective). This gave the opportunity to really highlight the need to build a Community of Practice (CoP), in which a continuous dialogue and work can take place. The strategic objectives of the Venice LL were discussed with all stakeholders, as well as their allocation into workgroups (CoP-Focus Groups, in short C-FGs), and the methodologies and timings.

Individuating common objectives and sharing competencies was the first step of a long path. This first meeting gave the foundation for promising cooperation among the strategic stakeholders of the LL, which is finalized towards overcoming the barriers that are currently hindering the full application of circular economy principles in the water sector for what concerns the resource recovery targeted in the Venice case study. From now on, it will be a matter of guaranteeing the conditions needed to work together.