The Annual Conference of the EIP Water was held on 5 and 6 November in Barcelona

Bioelectrogenesis Group of IMDEA Water attended as part of an Action Group to the Annual Conference of the EIP Water (European Innovation Partnership on Water), held on 5 and 6 November in Barcelona. The conference, which brought together over 400 participants, is a meeting point in enlightening discussions on connecting water innovation demand and supply, learn about the activities of our Action Groups, find opportunities for collaboration and help shape European water innovation policy.

The conference allowed the attendances the opportunity to learn about the current financial instruments for water innovation through the European Investment Bank, the so-called Bank of Water, according to the Head of Division, Ms. Monica Scatasta. Moreover, the bottlenecks and barriers to water innovation in EU were discussed while the not-for-profit organisation CDP −formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, presented its program for driving innovation.

Special attention was paid to start-up cases, with the general conclusion that they should mainly follow the market rules instead of trusting in public subsidies for growing. An improvement in communication strategies to connect with general audience should definitely be done.

About MEET-ME4water

MEET-ME4water (Microbial Electrochemistry Meeting for Water) is part of one of the 16 working groups selected under the EIP Water. The aim of the proposal is to overcome the obstacles for expansion and demonstration of microbial electrochemical technologies (MET) in order to transfer them to the water market.

EIP Water is an initiative of the European Union that aims to develop innovative solutions to address the key challenges of water in the world and create market opportunities for the actual application of technological advances.

MEET-ME4water, coordinated by the company aqualia, aims to explore the potential of MET in a) removal of wastewater pollutants, b) recovery of added value products from wastewater and d) synthesis of  value-added products from wastewater.

The task force is a public-private partnership focused on scientific innovation in the field of water management. Together with IMDEA Water, the University of Alcalá and aqualia, members of the consortium are universities of Ghent (Belgium) and Newcastle (UK), research centers CENTA (Spain), VITO (Belgium) and European Business and Technology Centre-EBTC (India), technology companies Magneto (The Netherlands) and Emefcy (Israel), ISMET (International Society for Microbial Electrochemistry and technology) and the Junta de Andalucía.