Working groups

BACKGROUND OF THE WORKING GROUPS

Throughout 2014, the Working Groups were restructured with the support of criteria that would allow them to be aligned with the trends set by water R&D&I at European and even international level. In this context, the innovation work should be directed towards the strategic objectives set by the WSSTP, the JPI and the EIP of water.

These groups could be considered as the most valuable instrumental element of PTEA, given the wide experience of their members, gathered under the slogan “partnership as a strength”.

In the initial stage and until April 2015, PTEA was structured in the following working groups:

Integrated water resources management, governance and decision support systems (DSS)
Water-energy nexus and water in agriculture
Treatment and purification. Technological solutions, including emerging compounds, reuse and recycling.
Groundwater, planning, management, control and quality, including emerging compounds and diffuse pollution.
Surface water, planning, management and quality, including emerging compounds. Ecosystem services management of extreme weather events. Floods and droughts.
Water in sustainable building and smart cities (including supply).
Water, leisure and health (social revitalization, including bottled water).
ICTs, monitoring and smart technologies
Financing innovation and innovative public procurement

This list of WGs presents a strong alignment with the strategic priority objectives, as can be seen from the following comparative table:

WSSTP	PTEA
Agriculture & irrigation	GT2 – Agua en la agricultura y binomio agua-energía.
Bathing water	GT5 – Aguas superficiales: planificación, gestión y calidad, incluyendo compuestos emergentes.
Eco-system services	GT5, GT4
Emerging compounds	Transversal
Financing for eu competitiveness	GT9 – Herramientas de financiación de la innovación.
Green infrastructure	GT3 – Tratamiento y depuración. Soluciones tecnológicas, incluyendo compuestos emergentes. Reutilización, reciclaje y desalación.
International relations	Transversal
Managing hydroclimatic extreme events	GT1 – Gestión integrada de los recursos hídricos, gobernanza y sistemas para la toma de decisiones.
Membrane technologies	GT3
Resource recovery	GT3
Shale gas
Techwatch	Antena tecnológica (desde cada GT).
Urban water pollution	GT3, GT1?, GT6 El agua en la edificación sostenible y Smart Cities (incluye abastecimiento)
Water-energy-food biodiversity nexus	GT2
Water & ICT	GT8 – TICs y smart technologies.
Water & industry	GT3

Tabla 1. Comparativa de los GT PTEA con los de la WssTP

Together they cover the main strategic objectives of the EIP Water:

Water reuse and recycling
Water and wastewater treatment, including recovery of resources
Water-energy nexus
Flood and drought risk management
Ecosystem services
Water governance
Decision support systems and monitoring
Financing for innovation
Smart technology has been defined as an enabling factor for all priority

RESTRUCTURING OF THE WORKING GROUPS

At the meeting of the Board of Directors held on 25 March 2015, the possibility of reducing the number of operational groups was analysed, for several reasons, including the great imbalance between some of them, which have little or no involvement from members.

In this regard, it was proposed to encourage a reduction in the interest of operability, either by absorbing them into a larger group with related objectives, as is the case of WG 7 on water, leisure and health, or by unifying ‘small’ groups with clearly related objectives (WG 4 and WG 5 on groundwater and surface water respectively), or by combining options, such as outsourcing WG 6 (water in sustainable building and smart cities) to the inter-platform group GICI, being absorbed at management level by WG 8 (ICTs, monitoring and smart technologies).

THE OBJECTIVES

To define the state of the sector/subsector:

SWOT analysis.
- Challenges and priorities in line with the innovation agents.
- Creation of the map of public and private actors at regional and national level, promoting their presence and participation.
- Creation of a technology catalogue (TLR).
- Creation of a marketing and communication plan.
Mapping the technologies with the national and international challenges and with the aforementioned work programmes.
Define a short, medium and long term market strategy, with a practical and applied tendency to bring the results of the PTEA action closer to the industrial fabric, materialising the R&D results.

THE ACTIVITIES

Dynamisation of activities, promoting interpersonal relationships (networking) between the members of each WG and between WGs.
Dissemination activities related to PTEA and other European Technology Platforms (ETPs).
Promote the creation of consortia and collaborative projects between the members of the WGs, the PTEA and related ETPs.
Present the strategy and the results achieved to national and international work programme managers (committee representatives).
Possible synergies with WGs of European/International platforms -> ‘Mirroring’ (WssTP, EWA, IWA, IWRA, IAH, etc).

FORESEEABLE RESULTS IN THE SHORT AND MEDIUM TERM

Analysis of the sector, expansion of information on the ‘paradigm of water in Spain in the 21st century’, whose weaknesses and shortcomings were detected to a large extent throughout this year.
Drafting and dissemination of strategic documentation and dissemination of research results through the dissemination channels already established and those that may arise in the course of the year.
Actions to update and improve the PTEA’s Strategic Research Agenda (SRA or AEI).
Minutes-summary of the meetings of each WG with an extract of their applicability and any additional supporting information.
Create entrepreneurial culture and opportunity.
Report results, incidents, etc. to the PTEA through the permanent flow of information both horizontally and vertically within and between platforms.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE OPERATION OF GTS IN THIS NEW PHASE

Compact WGs with a clear focus.
Rotational governance of the WGs with limited periods, with a maximum of 3-4 years.
Regulation of joining and leaving, avoiding virtual partners. To this end, a ‘commitment document’ was drawn up.
Generate a biannual periodic activity report to be reported to the Board of Directors, the highest management body that will analyse the appropriateness of the work in operation.

LIST OF WORKING GROUPS AFTER REORGANISATION

Listado de grupos de trabajo tras su reorganización

Integrated water resources management, governance and decision support systems (DSS) (includes the former WG4 (groundwater), WG 5 (surface water) and WG 7 (water, recreation and health). In addition to the action lines: ecosystem services (or, in the words of our chairman: ‘water and life’) and management of extreme climatic events (floods and droughts).
Water in agriculture and water-energy nexus. This group maintains its priority operational objectives.
Treatment and purification. Technological solutions, including emerging compounds, reuse and recycling.
ICTs and water (including monitoring and smart technologies).
Financing innovation and innovative public procurement.

Once this restructuring has been approved, a stage of reorganisation of the promoting companies begins, making joint coordination possible as a new example of partnership and with the aim of balancing the participation of industry, Public Research Organisations (PROs) and other agents involved.