Why the EU supports water research and innovation
Water is a critical environmental resource, the basis for all life. It needs to be managed well, allocated fairly between ecosystems and all water users now, and conserved for future generations.
It is strongly linked to global socioeconomic development, ranging from basic water safety, through water quality and sanitation, to food supply and generation of renewable energy.
Population increase and urbanisation, changing diets, climate variability and change are all putting pressure on world water resources. This makes it important to address these challenges in a systemic way, understand their scale, the various interconnections and trade-offs, and strengthen partnerships between public and private actors and international collaboration. Research and innovation plays a crucial role for this.
It is also key to helping citizens, societies, and water consuming sectors adopt innovative solutions to optimise their water use, reduce its pollution and to recycle it in a safe way to people and ecosystems.
EU water research and innovation activities cover a wide range of issues
- water quantity and availability
- water quality and pollution
- aquatic ecosystems protection and restoration
- water management and governance, including circular use of water
Funding opportunities
On this page you can find more information, the work programme and a link to related calls
Loans and grants available to support reforms and investments undertaken by EU countries for a sustainable recovery
Co-financing for research supporting the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy
Research related calls may be found in this programme, particularly in the European regional development fund
Projects and results
Thematic collection of innovative EU-funded water research results (CORDIS)
Compilation of EU-funded water research projects
Stories of particularly successful EU-funded water research
The Commission's primary portal for the results of EU-funded research projects
Portfolio analysis of Horizon 2020 and LIFE ICT4Water cluster projects
Latest news, interviews and features about thought-provoking science and innovative research projects funded by the EU
Platform where framework programme participants present their results for you to search, contact their owners, and form partnerships
Access to real-time programme data with the ability to filter by country, region, theme and more
Collaboration and jobs
PRIMA is a joint programme developing solutions to manage water and agri-food systems more sustainably in the Mediterranean
Joint Programming Initiative aiming to achieve sustainable water systems for a sustainable economy in Europe and beyond
The objective of the initiative is to boost systemic transformations across the entire water research – innovation pipeline
Joint project between three Joint Programming Initiatives: JPI Water JPI Oceans and JPIAMR on Antimicrobial Resistance
Scientific publications, tools and databases
Online library of EU research publications on water research
Scientific research publications on water research published by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC)
You can access all scientific publications from Horizon 2020 via OpenAIRE
Single point of access to open data produced by the EU institutions - all data free to use for commercial and non-commercial purposes
Latest
Water4All is launching its third Joint Transnational Call for research and innovation projects.
The Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) will be part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and will aim to tackle the key challenges in the water, marine and maritime fields.
