30
The News N° 24 - March 2014
FRom one conTinenT To anoTHeR
EUROPE
A new
Topic Center
on Water
for 5 years
The European Environment Agency
(EEA)
was established in 1990 to provide
the European Commission and Member
States with information on the status of the
environment and on the implementation of
EU policies in this field.
It is based in Copenhagen. It relies on a
network of 350 organizations all over
Europe,
EIONET,
to collect environmental
data.
The EEA relies on
European Topic Cen-
ters (ETCs),
consortia of governmental or
private non-profit organizations to which it
entrusts the organization of data collec-
tion, analysis of information, evaluation,
production of indicators and a role of tech-
nical support to Member States to imple-
ment National Environmental Information
Systems.
There is an ETC on inland, coastal and
marine waters, in which IOWater, as
”key expert”, is part of a consortium
of 18 partners led by the German
Helmholtz Center for Environmental
Research (UFZ).
The assignments entrusted to
IOWater
are
overseeing work on polluting emissions,
and the role of key expert for monitoring,
implementation of the INSPIRE Directive
and establishment of SIIFs (Structured
Implementation and Information Frame-
works).
4
In the context of European work on
”Science-Policy-Society Interface”, the
Water RtoM - Water Research to Market -
project financed by the LIFE+ Program
(2010-2013), aims to accelerate the trans-
fer of water research results to the Mar-
ket and improve the Researchers-Users
dialogue.
IOWater,
project coordinator, its three partners
(”Gdansk Water Foundation” - Poland, Amphos
21 - Spain, ”Romanian Water Association” -
Romania) and a committee of experts have
developed a strategy divided into three compo-
nents:
l
identifying innovative products,
l
assessing them,
quickly, at first, via the
ReMAS (Research to Market Assessment
Strategy) tool and, then, in more details by
specifying, in a language understood by the
water professionals, the missing steps to
make these products operational and mar-
ketable,
l
promoting them, free of charge,
via the
Web e-fair tool, e-seminars or professional
meetings.
The Water RtoM strategy has been suc-
cessful for 12 research results that have
attracted the attention of professionals.
A good practice guide also provides tools to
improve the Researchers-Users dialogue.
It describes:
l
A toolbox
to facilitate the dissemination
and promotion of research results to the
market,
l
10 good practices
to improve the
”science-society-users” interface, based on
the Water RtoM experience
l
Some recommendations.
The Guide is intended, on the one hand, for
water practitioners, basin organizations, water
administrations, municipal water utilities, tech-
nology providers, as well as for researchers,
research funding and technology transfer insti-
tutions.
IOWater
and its partners, convinced of the
importance and efficiency of such a strategy,
propose to capitalize the
Water RtoM
tools
and strategy through a permanent "service".
This service would provide individual support
to researchers in their strategy for dissemination
of their results, support to research planners by
providing in particular an analysis of the dis-
tance to the market for the results of funded
projects, support to SMEs, through competitive
clusters or SME networks, by providing a watch
on research products tailored to their needs.
The major difficulty, revealed by the market
study carried out at the end of the project, is
that, although the respondents (researchers,
donors and users) are very interested, they are
not willing to pay for such a service.
The proposed
Water RtoM
service is in the
making ... to see what it becomes in the future?
Contact:
4
Water RtoM
From Research to Market...
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