In the Danube River Basin lives 79 million inhabitants. As the Danube River Management Plan indicates the majority (52%) of all rivers do not meet the criteria of good chemical status, moreover all monitored indicators deteriorated. The Danube River is an artery of the ecosystems of the whole DRB and the region with significant environmental impact. The river also has an important economic utilization supporting SMEs, and creating jobs for locals as well as having a cultural importance. To properly manage this complex and fragile ecosystem we must think of a river basin and harmonize our actions from the Black Forest to the Black Sea. DALIA (Danube Region Water Lighthouse Action) is comprised of 22 expert organizations including universities, authorities, SMEs and NGOs from 8 different Danube EU and Associated countries accumulating an outstanding set of knowledge, covering not only the basin geographically but all different fields of expertise necessary to deal with the multidisciplinary issues from source to sea. The project brings to DRB integrated DALIA tool, which will be integrate into DAnube Mission Hub for better decision making to improve DRB restoration of fresh and transitional water ecosystems; it provides options for strategies and policies that concern freshwater ecosystem protection and ecosystem connectivity in DRB and improved protection of local communities and ecosystems from extreme events and pollution threats. The DALIA project will contribute directly to the establishment of EU and UN initiatives, related to the further execution on the Water Framework Directive by the execution of innovative actions across a variety of geographies, their scaling and the multiplication of outcomes with a wider network of ecosystems and related EU Missions and project actions throughout framework .

EuPOLIS aims to: (a) replace the traditional perception in which engineering systems are built to protect the environment at significant costs. We aim to deploy natural systems to simultaneously enhance Public Health (PH) and Well-Being (WB), and create resilient urban ecosystems at lower Life-Cycle Costs; (b) propose a structured approach to activate the hidden possibilities and services of existing Natural and Engineered urban systems, integrate them and define their joint social, cultural and economic effects, as a main vehicle for Ecosystem Business Services and Investment; (c) regenerate and rehabilitate urban ecosystems, while in parallel addressing key challenges such as low environmental quality, fragmentation and low biodiversity in public spaces, water-stressed resources, undervalued use of space in deprived areas and therefore we improve urban livability; (d) improve urban resilience (operational, social and economic) through interventions designed using a set of proper urban planning matrices, which catalyse stakeholder participation, with a special attention to gender, age and disability perspectives within the process; (e) create inclusive and accessible urban spaces by systematically implementing gender mainstreaming strategies and novel participatory tools into all phases and processes of project development to ensure that the needs of diverse groups are considered. We aim to stimulate active communities’ participation throughout the process; (f) to improve citizens’ quality of life providing them with pleasant socializing open areas that stimulate social exchange and inclusivity; (g) monitor and validate the impact of all interventions to PH and WB of citizens. EuPOLIS solutions will be demonstrated in 4 European cities: Belgrade, Lodz, Piraeus and Gladsaxe. We have also included some follower cities (Bogota, Palermo, Limassol and Trebinje) in order to replicate and demonstrate the advantages of our innovations via mentoring and coaching.

The NextGen initiative will evaluate and champion innovative and transformational circular economy solutions and systems that challenge embedded thinking and practices around resource use in the water sector. We will produce new understandings to underpin the exploitation of techniques and technologies that enhance our ability to recover, refine, reuse, repurpose, capture value from, and extend the use-life of, an ever-increasing range of resources and products, thereby projecting the European water and allied sectors as global circular economy pioneers. NextGen will demonstrate innovative technological, business and governance solutions for water in the circular economy in ten high-profile, large-scale, demonstration cases across Europe, and we will develop the necessary approaches, tools and partnerships, to transfer and upscale. The circular economy transition to be driven by NextGen encompasses a wide range of water-embedded resources: water itself (reuse at multiple scales supported by nature-based storage, optimal management strategies, advanced treatment technologies, engineered ecosystems and compact/mobile/scalable systems); energy (combined water-energy management, treatment plants as energy factories, water-enabled heat transfer, storage and recovery for allied industries and commercial sectors) and materials (nutrient mining and reuse, manufacturing new products from waste streams, regenerating and repurposing membranes to reduce water reuse costs, and producing activated carbon from sludge to minimise costs of micro-pollutant removal). The project mobilises a strong partnership of water companies, industry, specialised SMEs, applied research institutes, technology platforms, city and regional authorities and builds on an impressive portfolio of past research and innovation projects, leveraging multiple European and global networks guaranteeing real impact.