DURATION: 01.09.2024 to 31.08.2027
BUDGET: 113 484.38 € / 1 999 989.38 €
FUNDING: HORIZON-CL6-2023-CIRCBIO-01 Circular economy and bioeconomy sectors
ABOUT CIRSEAU
The European Commission, through the Horizon 2020 Framework, promoted the development of alternative water resources to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. In support of this initiative, the call CE-SC5-04-2019 funded five major projects—B-WaterSmart, WIDER UPTAKE, REWAISE, ULTIMATE, and WATER-MINING. These projects, running from 2020 to 2025 with a total budget of €84 million (including an EU contribution of €71.5 million), aim to enhance water use efficiency and reuse. They also focus on fostering synergies and preventing duplication of efforts across the projects.
To build on these efforts, the five coordinators joined forces, resulting in the creation of the CIRSEAU cluster, connecting 143 partners across more than 20 countries, including EU member states and countries such as India and Ghana. CIRSEAU aims to foster cross-promotion, communication alignment, and impactful outreach among the various water-smart economy projects.
KEY OBJECTIVES
The key objectives of this CIRSEAU project are to:
- Build a collaborative ecosystem that fosters strong synergies among the Circular Water Economy Community formed across EU projects.
- Expand the CIRSEAU cluster to enhance market uptake, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.
- Provide multidisciplinary expertise and foster international collaboration to promote cross-promotion, communication alignment, and allow impactful outreach to public authorities, policymakers, and standardization bodies.
This consortium brings together 10 partners from 6 countries (Belgium, Germany, Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, and Norway), providing the necessary expertise and international cooperation to achieve these goals.
OUR ROLE IN THE PROJECT
NTUA plays a leading role in the enhancement and management of the Water Europe Marketplace (WE MP) platform, a central digital hub designed to foster matchmaking, collaboration, and knowledge sharing among key stakeholders in the circular water economy. This platform is crucial for connecting regulatory authorities, industry professionals, startups, academics, and NGOs with solutions to real-world water-related challenges. NTUA ensures that the platform is highly interactive, allowing problem owners to connect with solution providers, investors, and other relevant actors. Additionally, NTUA works on enhancing the platform’s interoperability with other tools, such as Living Labs, Observatories, and Repositories, to offer a comprehensive and integrated space for stakeholders to engage. The overall goal is to support the growth of a sustainable circular economy in the water sector by providing a one-stop-shop for collaboration, innovation, and market engagement.
Figure 1: Registered organisations in Water Europe Marketplace
Other contributions of NTUA in the project are:
Developing Educational Materials on Circular Water Economy: NTUA collaborates with TU Delft to develop interdisciplinary courses and materials for training students and professionals on circular water economy concepts
Supporting the Circular Water Accelerator program: NTUA participates in the creation of a Circular Water Accelerator to help connect startups with business incubators, focusing on overcoming market barriers and fostering the uptake of circular water innovations
