Europe invests around 500 million euro a year to finance public research and innovation in the water sector, of which 370 million invested by European countries and 130 million invested by the European Commission. The Initiative of Joint Programming of research on water, approved by the Council of the European Union on December 6, 2011, helps to reduce the fragmentation of the efforts carried out by Member States in the protection and management of water resources and actively supports the European Commission to ensure that European citizens fully benefit from
the investment in the sector.
The Joint Programming Initiative on Water involves 20 participating countries, including precisely Italy with ISPRA, plus the European Commission. Besides, 4 member states follow the activities of the WATER JPI as observers. The initiative responds to the challenge of
"delivering sustainable water systems for a sustainable economy inside and outside Europe." No European country can meet this challenge alone, due to the breadth of the required actions and to the high geographical diversity characterizing water issues. Also, to adequately respond to such a challenge it is required a multidisciplinary approach, since it is necessary to address
economic, ecological, technological and social issues.
Currently Europe is a leader to the global water industry, both for research and technological innovation, with a third of all global business, scientific publications and international patents. The initiative aims to better coordinate European research programs, initiating specific activities such as projects, research infrastructure and mobility among researchers. The interaction between research, development and innovation programs in the partner countries of the Community initiative and the drafting of a common strategic agenda for research and innovation on the water, help to consolidate the primary role of Europe in this field. Such integration efforts allow to make progress in the sustainability of ecosystem services, to develop better water services for the citizens, to promote competitiveness in the water sector, to achieve a better economic system oriented to the protection of water resources and to give better and more comprehensive attention to all the components of the water cycle, in order to better protect the qualitative and quantitative aspects of this vital natural resource.
The version 1.0 of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda was adopted on 30 June 2014, as a result of anextensive consultation processcarried out on thepreviousSRIApublished on 30 June 2013.
This document sets out the priorities for transnational funding of research-oriented activities, useful to better face water challenges in specific areas of Europe. It also identifies the tools to enhance and exploit the results of research and resulting from the Water JPI or from national programs, thanks to innovative activities which can be exploited also for commercial purposes, also in collaboration with other extra- European countries.
The Water JPI together with the technological platform on water WssTP and the European Innovation Partnership on water will provide advice to the European Commission in the implementation of Horizon 2020, the new programme for EU research and innovation.
Water JPI website
