Waternomics at EIP Water Conference

Last February, Edward Curry and Sander Smit from Waternomics travelled to Leeuwarden to attend the EIP Water conference. With 500+ visitors from over 50 countries, the conference was well visited and an excellent opportunity to meet people from various domains. Mariana Mazzucato gave a thought provoking speech about the driving role of the public sector in innovation and the lack of recognition for her work. The City of London showed how they struggle to overcome the water stress in their region. At the end of the conference, the Leeuwarden declaration was presented, providing a set of actions to overcome the main barriers for innovation in the water sector.
Prior to the conference, Waternomics attended side meetings from ict4water and the Ctrl+SWAN action group. In the ict4water cluster meeting, the status of the project was presented and results were shared with the other cluster projects. In the cluster meeting, the future direction of research on smart water systems was discussed. Expanding the scope of ict4water to the wastewater and river basin domain seems a logical next step. Further alignment with Smart City programs and Big Data associations like BDVA, ensures interoperability with smart energy initiatives. All in all, it was good to see that smart water was well represented in Leeuwarden and to see representatives from the public sector, research community and the businesses together shaping the future of the water sector.