EU Water Innovation Conference 2019

Introduction

The EU Water Innovation Conference 2019 (EUWIC) was held on December 12, in Zaragoza, Spain. It will carry the theme:

“Accelerating action to tackle water pollution and enhance EU preparedness to water-related climate change impacts”   #EUWIC #CleanWaterEU

The European Commission aims to raise awareness about the need and urgency to improve water management across the European Union towards a water-smart society. This high-level event feed innovators minds with best practices and innovative approaches at technical, governance and policy levels.

This was the 5^th EIP Water Conference, after Brussels (2013), Barcelona (2014), Leeuwarden (2016) and Porto (2017), and built upon the European Innovation Partnership (EIP Water)’s efforts so far to foster innovation in the water sector and overcome the main existing barriers. At the same time, it was a stepping stone into the future, as the current EIP Water is planned to end in 2020, and it will likely be followed by new actions to address water-related challenges, secure enhanced compliance with the EU water acquis and foster the research-policy interface, whilst strengthening partnerships for joint efforts.

The city of Zaragoza was selected as a host city after a pan-European competition won by the Region of Aragon (Spain).

Aragon’s proposal builds on a strong legacy of hosting the water-focused World Expo in 2008, and a strong institutional, entrepreneur and civil society engagement in water. Zaragoza and the conference venue are located at the Ebro river banks, and Aragon faces many of the today’s and tomorrow’s challenges on water management, including pollution, floods, scarcity and droughts. At the same time, Aragon is a dynamic region, with strong innovation activities related to the circular economy and sustainability. Zaragoza is a recognized congress city with important events such as Smagua International Water and Irrigation exhibition.

EUWIC and side events

The EIP Water conference was preceded and followed by an increasing number of side meetings, social events as well as site visits on December 11 and 13. Participants of the conference learned about Aragon’s unique features, attended site visits in the middle Ebro river valley and Pyrenees mountains, and attended a series of side events before and after the event. 36 side meetings took place on December 11 between 9:00 and 18:00 at the conference venue. In addition, social events such as the welcome reception on December 11, networking cocktail on December 12 back to back with the conference and/or site visits on December 13 were planned.

 

A web-stream can be found here.

Graphic recording (PDF download – zip file, 5,4 MB)