WaterWise’s Story: An Excellence Hub on Water in the Circular Economy

WATERWISE: An Excellence Hub on Water in the Circular Economy is a European Union Excellence Hubs (EH) project funded under the Horizon WIDERA (2023, ACCESS-07) call. The objectives for this webinar are to: • Support the formation of an EH Community; • Increase awareness of and support for WATERWISE specifically, and EH projects and the Widening Programme more generally; • Catalyze new collaborations; • Disseminate best-practices and lessons-learned from elaborating the WATERWISE proposal and executing the WATERWISE project. The primary target audiences are: • Other EH projects and their external stakeholders; • Water‑intensive industries—municipal & industrial water utilities, process and manufacturing sectors, suppliers—driving the uptake of circular‑water solutions. • Stakeholders accelerating the circularity transition • Stakeholders for the EU Widening Program, including those with interests / activities in writing EU proposals and executing EU projects. The webinar opens with an introduction to the WaterWise Excellence Hub—its origin, objectives and milestones to date. Next, it summarizes the latest EU policy moves that push a circular economy for water (Water Reuse Regulation, recast Urban Waste Water Directive, forthcoming Water Resilience Strategy) and shows where WaterWise fits in. The third segment shares early findings from our Quadruple‑Helix stakeholder mapping, highlighting key needs and collaboration opportunities. Expect a 30‑minute presentation followed by 15 minutes of open Q&A to discuss lessons learned, ongoing challenges and the vision beyond 2028. WATERWISE has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101184151. Views and opinions expressed are those of the project only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.