The alarming state of freshwater ecosystems today: Freshwater ecosystems degraded due to barriers / other morphological changes; loss of wetlands / floodplains; over abstraction of surface / ground waters; land management that reduces infiltration / generates pollution! Millions of euros and hours in ecosystem restoration works have made improvements, yet not stemmed the tide of biodiversity loss. The overwhelming complexity and diversity of approaches, the sheer mass of sometimes contradictory data, the frighteningly heavy toll that failures take on public perception of the potential for Europe to succeed, the lack of media understanding of the challenges and our potential to deal with them – all of these demand a multi-pronged, country-by country campaign to consolidate recent scientific advances and innovations and to train the media to communicate them and the evidence that Europe can indeed halt biodiversity loss. EcoAdvance will co-create, through broad consultations and crowdsourcing, a user-friendly Prone2Success Checklist cataloguing the climate, environmental, economic, scientific, technological and human factors, country by country, that can make a difference and how to duplicate them. EcoAdvance will consolidate recent scientific advances, drive media messaging and put a persuasive human face on freshwater ecosystem restoration successes - all from the perspectives of the people who did them, pursued, supported, tested, modified, demonstrated or evaluated them. By identifying and showcasing successful people, science and solutions that are “bending the curve”, EcoAdvance will bring guidance from personal journeys to support current leaders, scientists and decisionmakers who face some of the same challenges and dilemmas the successful have already navigated, as they try to figure out: Will this work? Is it worth the money, time and effort? Is it the right thing to do for our community and our circumstances?

FREEWAT aims at promoting water management and planning by simplifying the application of the Water Framework Directive and other EU water related Directives. FREEWAT will be an open source and public domain GIS integrated modelling environment for the simulation of water quantity and quality in surface water and groundwater with an integrated water management and planning module. Specific objectives of the FREEWAT project are: - to coordinate previous EU and national funded research to integrate existing software modules for water management in a single environment into the GIS based FREEWAT; - to support the FREEWAT application in an innovative participatory approach gathering technical staff and relevant stakeholders (in primis policy and decision makers) in designing scenarios for the proper application of water policies. FREEWAT will initiate a process aimed at filling the gap between EU and US on widespread-standardised ICT tools and models for management of water quantity and quality and will set a well recognisable and flagship initiative. The open source characteristics of the platform allow to consider this an initiative "ad includendum" (looking for inclusion of other entities), as further research institutions, private developers etc. may contribute to the platform development. Through creating a common environment among water research/professionals, policy makers and implementers, FREEWAT main impact will be on enhancing science- and participatory approach and evidence-based decision making in water resource management, hence producing relevant and appropriate outcomes for policy implementation. The Consortium is constituted by partners from various water sectors from 11 EU countries, plus Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine. Synergies with the UNESCO HOPE initiative on free and open source software in water management greatly boost the value of the project. Large stakeholders involvement guarantees results dissemination and exploitation.

EULAC Focus addresses the whole set of topics included in the Call. It delivers a significant contribution to the improvement of EU–CELAC relations through a better understanding of the three dimensions selected by the call: cultural, scientific and social. The main objective is that of “giving focus” to these three dimensions of EU–CELAC relations, with a view to determining synergies and cross-fertilization, as well as identifying asymmetries in bi-lateral and bi-regional relations. Research is focused on areas crucial to explain the current state of relations between EU and LAC, and will be pursued at two levels: a) research activities; b) strategic set of recommendations. In order to guarantee high impact, the research is pursued in six interdisciplinary WPs, organized “matricially”. Three are “horizontal ”: Cross-cutting pathways, Towards a common vision for EU–CELAC and Dissemination and outreach. The other three are “thematic/vertical”: Cultural, Scientific and Social Dimension, and not only intersect the horizontal WPs but also interact between them. To achieve the objectives, the project is organized by the multidisciplinary and well balanced consortium of19 members from 15 counties. The consortium represents a unique group of highly competent and experienced institutions, composed specifically for the purpose of this project,comprising, in both regions, Gov Research Agencies, Research institutes, Universities, University Association, and two International European – LA Organizations active in analytical and policy oriented research and dissemination. EULAC Focus builds upon the outcomes of prior mapping conducted at the bi-regional level and will facilitate access to end-users, as well as feeding into the work of the EU-LAC Foundation and informing bi-regional networking activities of the JIRI and T-AP’s work. The number of partners has been carefully defined to ensure project goals and proper diversity, while allowing for efficient project management.