Project Partners

Grounded on six coastal European cities and regions as interconnected Living Labs and supported by Communities of Practice and a European Innovation Alliance (INALL), 35 project partners from eight European countries work on sustainable and economically efficient solutions for optimized use of water to enable water-smart economies and societies.

Partner	Description
	IWW Water Centre is one of the leading water research institutes in Germany and affiliated with the University of Duisburg-Essen. Main fields of activity are water resources management, water technology, water networks, water quality analysis, applied microbiology, water economics and management. IWW is the project coordinator of B-WaterSmart and responsible for the exploitation and dissemination activities of the project. IWW also contributes to the scientific work by microbiological monitoring of the Living Lab in East Frisia, developing water-smart tools for regional water allocation and short-term demand forecast, and establishing a water-smartness assessment framework together with the B-WaterSmart partners.
	adelphi is a leading independent think tank and public policy consultancy on climate, environment and development. The water programme focusses on policy analysis and advice, applied research, technical advice, dialogue processes and trainings for developing sustainable solutions adapted to the specific framework conditions. In B-WaterSmart adelphi is responsible for the identification of stakeholders needs and elaborating replication opportunities for project results in the form of tailored application concepts. Adelphi will also formulate recommendations for enabling frameworks for their implementation.
	ADENE, the Portuguese Energy Agency, develops and enforces activities under public policies to promote the efficient use of energy and water, contributing to a more competitive, sustainable and low-carbon economy, society and economy. Many activities include the development of water and energy efficiency methodologies, tools and benchmarking. In the B-WaterSmart project, the main responsibility is related to the development of ‘water-smart for climate-ready’ certificates for new and renovated households, buildings and neighbourhoods, including the search of new financing mechanisms within the water sector. ADENE is also involved in the development and demonstration of water-smart applications for Lisbon.
	Águas do Tejo Atlântico is a leading company operating in the environmental sector in Portugal. Its mission is to contribute to the pursuit of national objectives in the wastewater collection and treatment within a framework of economic, financial, technical, social and environmental sustainability. Águas do Tejo Atlântico has the responsibility to manage and operate the wastewater multi-municipality system of Lisbon and the West. AdTA is a key stakeholder of the Lisbon Living Lab and will actively participate in the CoPs and on the development and demonstration of water-smart solutions in Lisbon.
	Aguas de Alicante manages the urban water cycle in the city of Alicante (Spain) and surrounding municipalities, providing water, sewerage and recycled water distribution services to more than 500.000 inhabitants. It is a mixed company (municipal/private) with 122 years of history. In the project, Aguas de Alicante will implement a set of innovative technologies aimed at improving the sustainability of waste water treatment and water reuse to be tested under the LL scheme. It will also act as a central node for the stakeholders related to water reuse, involving them in the design of future strategies for circular economy.
	Aquafin is responsible for the wastewater treatment infrastructure in Flanders, collecting household wastewater from the municipal sewers and transporting it to wastewater treatment plants, to treat it in accordance with European and Flemish standards. We also use our knowledge of the water cycle to work towards an environment in harmony with water, involving a broad range of activities. Aquafin participates in the Living Lab Flanders by taking part in the development of the demonstrations for potable reuse of treated municipal wastewater and agricultural reuse of storm water.
	Baseform makes software for managing water in the city, offering advanced outcome-driven analytics that take advantage of its platform with enhanced data connectivity and next-gen 3D, in use by over 40 cities around the world. As a B-Watersmart partner, Baseform will provide its advanced city geospatial capabilities, implementing specialized water, energy and nutrient balance analytics, assessing performance, risk and cost, prioritizing intervention alternatives and ultimately supporting decision-making in the contexts explored by the project.
	The city of Bodø is the administration centre in the County of Nordland in Norway and the largest city in the county with 52397 citizens. The national government has decided to end the military air activity in Bodø within the next years and a new civil runway will be built until 2025. By moving the airport and building a completely new city in close proximity to the historic city centre, Bodø gets the opportunity to build a smart city for the future. With this urbanisation the water management is changing and Bodø is a pilot area for three cases in B-WaterSmart.
	Cetaqua Water Technology Centre is a public-private partnership, created to ensure sustainability and efficiency of the water cycle, considering territorial needs. It is a European reference in the application of scientific knowledge to water management and the environment with the creation of products and services that benefit and add value to society. Cetaqua is partner of the Alicante Living Lab and the leader of WP4 (Circular economy value chains in the Living Labs). Cetaqua is responsible for the implementation of the first innovation space in Spain for water reuse and the identification of circular economy opportunities in the region.
	Located on the northern bank of the Tagus River’s estuary, with an extensive riverfront, Lisbon is the capital of Portugal (pop. 10.3 million). The Lisbon Metropolitan Area has a total of 18 municipalities and a population of 2.8 million. The city of Lisbon (run by Camara Municipal de Lisboa – short CML) has 548,000 residents, increasing by more than 70%, as a result of daily commuting and tourism. The city enjoys a Mediterranean climate and is currently facing the impact of climate change, in terms of temperature, rainfall, windy storms and sea level rise. One of the Living Labs of B-WaterSmart is located in Lisbon.
	De Watergroep is the largest drinking water company in Flanders and serves more than 3.2 million customers. As an autonomous water company De Watergroep offers products and services across the entire water chain, from delivering drinking water over producing fit-for-purpose process water to supporting municipalities in sewer management. Within B-WaterSmart, we are LL Flanders owner and collaborate with other partners to explore and demonstrate watersmart solutions like closing water loops, improving drinking water robustness as well as increasing water reuse.
	Depuracque Servizi srl operates its own industrial waste disposal platform in Salzano (VE) since 1971, authorized to the treatment of 200,000 t/year of waste and equipped with its own logistics and transport division. It is also authorized to manage its customers mobile waste treatment plants at industrial sites, including reclamation sites. Depuracque is partner in the Venice Living Lab, designing, testing at laboratory scale and providing a stripping/absorption pilot plant (packed columns) for nitrogen-ammonia recovery and commercial salt production from the WWTP concentrated streams; even improving the anaerobic digestion by co-digestion of sludge and liquid waste.
	With around 7,700 employees at more than 20 locations in Germany, the Netherlands and other international hubs, Germany’s largest dairy cooperative processes milk into food products of the highest quality. The product portfolio ranges from cheese, dairy products and ingredients to baby food, ice cream and whey products. It is priority for the DMK Group to ensure more sustainability along the entire value chain, use resources economically and implement holistic environmental protection in production and retailing. As part of B-WaterSmart DMK demonstrates the reuse of treated process water as a substitute for drinking water at the Living Lab in East Frisia.
	Engineering (ENG) is currently the first IT group in Italy and among the top 10 IT groups in Europe. It supports the digital transformation of private/publics organizations for various business segments, including Smart Energy & Utilities. ENG is co-founder of the FIWARE Foundation and member of Water Europe and BDVA. In B-WaterSmart, ENG leads the definition a conceptual integration of the ICT solutions toolkits and is the main ICT partner supporting the Venice case study. ENG also will provide its expertise for the definition of a FIWARE-based interoperability approach and for the definition of business models.
	EnviroChemie is a leading plant engineering company for industrial water treatment, water circulation and wastewater treatment. Plant solutions include water recycling, resource recycling or zero discharge requirements. For B-WaterSmart, EnviroChemie will design, build and operate a pilot plant for water recycling within a dairy factory: The water that remains when dairy products are dried, the so-called cow water, will be treated with a combination of processes to achieve drinking water quality. This pilot plant will demonstrate within the living lab ‘East Frisia’ that such a water recycling plant produces hygienically save drinking water from cow water.
	ETRA SpA is an Italian multi-utility involved in water services (water supply, sewage and water treatment) and in the waste management in 74 municipalities located along the Brenta River Basin. In B-Water Smart, Etra is involved in the “Living Lab Venice”, in particular in the nutrients recovery from different concentrated liquid streams and in the building of the sludge platform.
	Eurecat is the leading Technology Centre of Catalonia, providing the industrial and business sector with differential technology and advanced expertise to boost their competitiveness in a fast-paced environment. Eurecat participates in the bench-scale assessment of the low thermal evaporation technology and in the risk assessment. Moreover, Eurecat also will contribute to the elaboration of semantic interoperability to the water sector and FIWARE compatibility.
	Hydrotech Engineering Srl (HT) is one of the world’s leading advanced water treatment companies for process and waste waters. HT realizes turnkey water treatment plants, utilizing the most advanced semi-permeable membranes and biological technologies for water recycling and reuse. From the design of the treatment process, to engineering development and construction, every step is directly executed in our workshop and managed by our team. HT is proud to participate in the B-WaterSmart project as an integrated supplier for a pilot plant (1 m3/h) with combined/modular treatments for the production of high-quality water, which will serve the industrial area of the Venetian Lagoon.
	The I-SENSE Research Group of ICCS has been the coordinator or dissemination manager in more than 40 EC projects, including: SCENT, PLUGGY, SENSKIN, SAFERtec, IN-PREP, COREALIS, CIRC4Life, NextGen; VR-Hyperspace, GAME-ABLING, ManuVAR, AutoNet2030, AdaptIVe, TEAM, INACHUS, RECONASS and others. ICCS has considerable experience in technical management, quality, knowledge and data management tasks. In B-WaterSmart, ICCS mainly is bringing in knowledge in the area of data formatting and exchange. ICCS also leads the data visualization part of the dashboard development. Considering its experience with Circular Economy, ICCS will also lead the implementation of an advanced Marketplace.
	The Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS) is a multidisciplinary university institution that produces scientific knowledge on contemporary societies. ICS’s three main areas of activity are a) research, published in renowned journals and books and disseminated in networks and scientific meetings, b) postgraduate training, closely connected to research lines, projects and international cooperation networks and c) outreach, in particular through the Observatories on Portuguese Society and research, which affects public policy as well as commissioned studies from private and public bodies and dissemination activities to non-academic audiences.
	Krüger Kaldnes AS is a Norwegian company that delivers total solutions for water treatment to municipalities and industry in Norway. The company offers all stages in the water market, from engineering to turnkey installations. Krüger Kaldnes was established in 1989 and today is part of Veolia, having about 90 employees and offices in Sandefjord and Drammen. We will provide feasibility evaluations for the identified local needs and also provide design, building and testing at the Living Lab for an innovative solution defined.
	KWR Water Research Institute generates knowledge to enable the water sector to operate water-wisely in our urbanised society. The scientific findings and the practical innovations of KWR contribute worldwide to a sustainable water provision in the urban water cycle. KWR has ample experience with the overall coordination of integrated EU funded research projects such as TECHNEAU (FP6), PREPARED (FP7), DEMEAU (FP7), SUBSOL (Horizon2020), SCREENCAP (CIP-ECO), NextGen and ULTIMATE (Horizon2020). Within B-WaterSmart, KWR leads the development of the water-smart application and data, provides scientific know-how and contributes to the water-smartness assessment framework of B-WaterSmart.
	LNEC is the largest Portuguese applied research institute in civil engineering and related areas, combining R&DI with specialised consultancy, training and support to industry (e.g. through Innovation Alliances involving 170+ water utilities), and contributing to policy, regulation and standardization. B-WaterSmart-related expertise includes efficient water-energy use, performance assessment, water quality, treatment & reuse, groundwater management, risk management, stakeholders’ consultation & engagement. In B-WaterSmart, LNEC is the scientific mentor supporting the Lisbon Living Lab and is directly responsible for organizing the Innovation Alliance with the six LLs and the training on B-WaterSmart products.
	Mechelen is a local government and a medium-sized city in heart of Europe near Brussels, with 86.000 inhabitants. One of the key environmental challenges faced by the city is water management in a changing climate and circular and sustainable resources. Mechelen participates in the Living Lab Flanders and contributes to the project by developing a demonstration project, together with local partners. The city will explore the possibilities of the valorisation of storm water for local farmers. The city is also looking forward to contribute in developing both the technical and the financial/juridical elements of the pilot site.
	Nordkontakt is one of the leading automation companies in Norway. We work with digitalization and automation in all industries. We will design and develop a framework for visualizing water consumption (dashboard/GUI) and compile all available measurement data from online water meters (retrieve data from scada systems). We will test different IoT carriers and meters and establish water metering in relevant zones and all homes in the selected zone. It is important that there is a sufficient amount of data capture to develop the said dashboard and make this a product that can be adopted to all the cities in the project.
	The Norwegian University of Science and Technology is the largest university in Norway, headquartered in Trondheim, with campuses in Gjøvik and Ålesund. It has a strong focus on innovation and entrepreneurship and its Water and Wastewater Engineering Research Group holds expertise in diverse areas, such as safe drinking water, advanced treatment of wastewater, storm water management strategies, water and wastewater networks asset management and industrial processes. NTNU leads Work Package 2, the technology work package and is a research partner contributing to deliverables across all Work Packages.
	OOWV is the largest water provider in Lower Saxony and one of the biggest water providers and waste water treatment organizations in Germany in terms of area (7.860 km²). With 46 sewage treatment plants, OOWV treats wastewater for around 500.000 people, which is around 35 Mio. m³ of sewage per year. It is a body governed by public law and located close to the North Sea. Within B-WaterSmart, OOWV connects regional stakeholders, industries, research institutes and the national and international water network. The technologies and tools will be developed and tested in the living lab Eastern Frisia.
	PSKW is a research institute for greenhouse and field vegetables in Flanders, Antwerp and fosters innovation in close contact with horticultural growers. The PSKW research group has developed key expertise in the fields of water, fertilisation, vegetable varieties, energy, IPM and cultivation techniques. The expertise of PSKW is used for the implementation of storm water for subirrigation in an agricultural area (Mechelen) to diminish the effects of water scarcity. PSKW will contribute to a more sustainable use of irrigation water in agriculture by operating in communities of practice and innovation alliances.
	SINTEF is Scandinavia’s largest independent research organisation, and a non-profit research foundation with about 2000 employees. It is a multidisciplinary private research institute that performs research and development for industry and the public sector. SINTEF vision is „technology for a better society“, and it is an important aspect of the company societal role to contribute to the creation of more jobs. SINTEF has a comprehensive long time research experience in the field of water and sanitation services, digitalization and social science. The main role of SINTEF in the B-WaterSmart project is to lead the development of the water-smartness assessment framework.
	Techni AS was established in 1997 and has since then evolved to become a leading Norwegian R&D consultancy. We deliver cutting edge R&D services within mechanic, electronic and Industrial design along with production. We assist companies through the complete development process, tailoring the services to their needs from concept study, as a start package, or the whole process from idea to production. In the B-WaterSmart project we will assist the Bodø municipality with sensors and data for analysing the water consumption, network pressure changes as well as automatic loss detection and the position of the loss.
	Turbulent is a company dedicated to the development of its patented micro hydropower plant, an efficient low head hydropower turbine without impact on its local ecosystem. By using the natural principle of a vortex it is possible to combine efficiency with fish friendliness, and having a compact, robust and smart micro hydropower plant (15-100kW). Turbulent is currently in a perfect position to use its technical capacity to demonstrate the added value of applications in wastewater treatment plants in Europe and beyond. By adding this market segment, Turbulent is one step closer of becoming the go-to company for low head hydropower.
	Founded in 1972, the National Distance Education University (UNED) has the public service of higher education through the modality of distance education as its mission. With more than 250,000 students, UNED has the largest student population in Spain and is one of the largest universities in Europe. At the B-WaterSmart project, UNED will lead the proposal of business models to ensure the feasibility of the circular opportunities detected at the Living Labs, propose guidelines on how to implement these business models and support the society, governance and policy tasks of the project.
	Veritas is the first leading public multi-utility of the Veneto region in Italy, dealing with waste and wastewater management, hydric services and bioenergy production. Environment and natural resources protection together with efficient and high-quality public services supply are some of the main field activities of the group. Veritas is leader of the Venice living lab, responsible for the pilot scale technologies implementation for water reuse, nutrients recovery and sludge management. Veritas also contributes to the development of a solid territorial approach to circular economy and of a negotiation platform for the assessment of economic and environmentally sustainable water reuse opportunities.
	VITO is a Flemish Research and Technology organisation in the area of cleantech and sustainable development with over 750 high-qualified employees who work on international projects all around the world. VITO’s water department offers a 360° view on water, integrating environmental, technological, societal and business dimensions. It develops smart water solutions for and in close collaboration with cities/governments, industry and agriculture. Vlakwa, Flanders Knowledge Centre Water, is a division within VITO Water and also contributes to B-Watersmart. It connects industry, government and researchers to accelerate the transition to a sustainable water system in Flanders.
	Water Europe (WE) is the recognized voice and promotor of water-related RTD and innovation in Europe. WE 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. With over 200 members across Europe on board, WE is recognised by the European Commission as the industry-led European Technology Platform (ETP) for Water. WE envisions a smart-water 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.

Project Partners

Project Partners

Partner

Description

Get project news