River basins: New WaterInnEU Marketplace launched

The Marketplace directly supports innovations from across Europe that have been previously funded by the EU, but have yet to achieve market adoption. The available products include a combination of commercially available products and services, developers seeking collaborators for market deployment, and open source models. The platform seeks to bring together all elements of the river basin community including researchers, SMEs, industry and public bodies in order to achieve better exploitation and market translation of EU funded tools.

Strengthening the network of river basin managers: targeted dissemination and support services

During the first year of the WaterInnEU project, adelphi research consulted actors involved in implementing the EU Water Framework Directive to assess their information needs, preferences and challenges in selecting and applying products for river basin management. Stakeholders from 51 different European river basins participated in this comprehensive consultation process, providing valuable insights on the functioning of river basin management in different European regions.

The recommendations formulated by stakeholders consulted have been taken up for the design of concrete functionalities and the definition of accompanying services offered by the newly launched WaterInnEU Market Place. It offers a set of selected and pre-screened tools and solutions supporting different areas of river basin management, in order to draw users’ attention to the availability of potentially relevant new products and to facilitate introductions with their owners. Products and services are described in detail along with feedback from previous users, case studies and tutorials or courses to help users identify and implement the right solution.

The needs assessment carried out by adelphi research shows that strengthening the network of river basin managers and related relevant stakeholders throughout Europe is of utmost importance. Facilitating the exchange of practitioners in this field will enhance the efficiency and sustainability of river basin management across borders and contribute to a more efficient implementation of the Water Framework Directive.