The CIRcular Smart Economy EAU (CIRSEAU) Cluster has designed a document with the main ambitions, explain the social impact, and the goals of each project that is part of the cluster. The CIRSEAU Cluster is the union of 5 sister projects (REWAISE, ULTIMATE, Water Mining, B-Water Smart and Wider Uptake), with a total budget of €84.0M (€71.5M financed by the European Union), that have joined forces to generate synergies and work together for a better water-smart economy and society in Europe.
The 5 European projects have been approved under the Horizon 2020 Programme (CE-SC5-04-2019). This call was targeting at actions able to demonstrate the feasibility of a ‘water smart’ economy and society in which all available water resources.
The CIRSEAU cluster has defined their impact on the society. The cluster aims to significantly reduce the use of water from freshwater sources; improve recovery and use of resources (materials and water itself), including energy; and mobilisation of water-related investments and synergies with other funding instruments. As well as creating new business opportunities and increasing the competitiveness of EU industries and successful implementation of EU water policies. The CIRSEAU cluster also is looking forward to a sustainable transition to a more circular economy at different scales and economic and social conditions; and increased water security, water use efficiency, enhanced resilience to climate change and achievement of the relevant Sustainable Development Goals.
This alliance connects 143 partners in more than 20 countries, reaching almost all members stated of the European Union (EU), in addition to countries like India or Ghana outside the EU. To enhance cooperation, this cluster defined the working areas necessary to achieve the goals of the projects, and organised 5 main Working Groups (WG), each uniting specific experts on: Communication, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Stakeholder Engagement, and Young Water Professionals (YWPs). Each WG leader holds regular meetings where strategic information and results are shared, to consolidate in joint actions comprehensive documents to the EC with all the interesting findings and policy recommendations, so future projects can build on that work already done. 35 cases will be studied within CIRSEAU projects.
Figure 1. Case studies in CIRSEAU founder projects
Also, this already established alliance intends to strengthen and improve its operational capacity by delivering the CSA proposed by EC HORIZON-CL6-2023-CIRCBIO-01-3: Harnessing the innovation potential and market uptake of successful circular economy water projects. Specific additional measures are proposed in this CSA to enhance knowledge exchange, extracting from relevant EU projects new models for circular water systems and efficient water management. By promoting new market mechanisms, further exploitation and acceleration of business development is achieved, to implement scientific and technological advances from innovative companies and apply the most promising systemic solutions within the participating water utilities and more than one hundred Water Orientated Living Labs (WOLL).
The main objective of the CSA is to build a collaborative ecosystem that generates strong synergies among the Circular Water Economy Community formed across EU projects, and to expand the CIRSEAU cluster to enhance market uptake, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.
