Water4All 2023 Joint Transnational Call "Aquatic Ecosystem Services"

The Water4All partnership started in 2022 under the auspices of the European Union Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation, to concentrate research and innovation on water in Europe and beyond. Water4All’s Vision is to “boost the systemic transformations and changes across the entire research – water innovation pipeline, fostering the matchmaking between problem owners and solution providers for ensuring water security for all in the long term”.

Funding Organisations from 30 countries all over Europe and beyond are pleased to pre-announce a Joint Transnational Call for research and innovation projects on “Aquatic Ecosystem Services”.

The Joint Transnational Call will be launched in the framework of the European Partnership Water4All and will support research and innovation projects to improve water security in the long term. In line with the strategic objectives of Water4All, the results should contribute to the implementation of evidence-based, global, EU and national water management policies and strategies, including the Green Deal, the Water Framework Directive (WFD), Just Transition and the Water Action Agenda for UN Sustainable Development Goals. Proposals should show cognisance of appropriate legislation and policy frameworks at national and international levels that are meant to alleviate global change impacts on aquatic ecosystem services.

The general theme of the Water4All 2023 Joint Transnational Call is “Ecosystem Services”, with aquatic ecosystems as the focus, including inland surface water, groundwater, transitional and coastal water, and having water security on top of the objectives.

Call topics:

Research and innovation proposals submitted under the Water4All 2023 Joint Transnational Call are required to address at least one of the following topics:

• Topic 1. Mapping, monitoring, and assessment for a better understanding of ecosystem services in a context of changes, from local to global change.
   
• Topic 2. Understanding and predicting multiple pressures (including anthropogenic pressures) - impact – response relationships in ecosystem services through advanced methods and techniques.
   
• Topic 3. New tools and solutions for a better integration of ecosystem services into the management of water resources.

In addition, this call will include two additional modalities aiming at:

• Early Career Researchers holding a PhD since less than 10 years ago
   
• Expression of interest to participate in a Knowledge Hub, formed by a group of experts of Water4All funded projects and aiming at synthesizing and communicating research results of funded projects to the water community (policy, end-users, public) with various tools (workshops, policy briefs, state-of-the-art reports, position papers, etc.).

The budget to implement the Joint Transnational Call for research and innovation projects is about 29 M€ and will be topped-up by the European Commission. The countries participating to the call are: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom.

Please consult the Call Announcement and the national regulations on the Water4All website.