Deadline: 22-Mar-23
The Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Areas (PRIMA) is offering grants under the “2023 Water Management Programme” to integrate adaptive wastewater management plans in the Mediterranean region.
Scope
- Proposals submitted to this call are expected to develop wastewater treatment and reuse approaches in connection with nutrient and energy recovery and cost-effective design solutions for managing and minimising micro-pollutants. This is an area with a strong policy emphasis potentially contributing to solving multiple problems at once: nutrient pollution and eutrophication, increasing prices of fertilisers and lack of access to/depletion of raw phosphates, water scarcity and depletion of water resources in the Mediterranean, water pollution including contaminants of emerging concern with public health implications.
- Some of the past and ongoing projects in this domain have the potential to offer a part of the solution. Yet, to arrive at effective recycling of nutrients and wastewater reuse without further spreading pollution, they also need to solve the microplastic pollution in wastewater and pollution from pharmaceutical products and other contaminants that are not removed from wastewater currently.
- A project that would holistically look at these issues and integrate existing solutions (both green, for instance, nature-based solutions and grey) would contribute to the challenges faced by countries in the Mediterranean region.
Topics
- Demonstrate the feasibility and limits of circular nutrient management by recovering and recycling nutrients from (agricultural, urban, and industrial) wastewater and sewage sludge to prevent them from entering aquatic environments and lower the need for traditional fossil-based fertilisers
- Upgrade of wastewater treatment plants to better trap micro-pollutants and micro-plastics and improve conditions for increasing water reuse and better management of sewage sludge
- Optimise the energy consumption of the sector and encourage the uptake of energy efficiency technologies leading to energy savings and reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Strengthen the uptake of digital solutions for permanent tracking of potential pollutants at the inlet and outlet of the wastewater facilities
- Plan a surveillance system for COVID-19 in large wastewater treatment plants as a rapid and reliable source of information on the spread of current and future variants of the virus and other emerging pathogens
- Involve national, regional and local authorities, industry, farmers and consumers in the analysis of governance options and costs of improved access to sanitation in Mediterranean countries.
Funding Information
Total Amount: EUR 8.2 million
Expected impacts
- Creation of new market opportunities for recovered or recycled nutrients;
- Improvement of the energy efficiency of the wastewater treatment sector to move towards carbon and energy neutrality
- Reduction of the eutrophication of Mediterranean coastal and inland water bodies and protection and restoration of affected ecosystems (incl. ecosystem services provision).
- Increased awareness and changes in practices and behaviours of urban and agricultural communities and industries towards more sustainable ones can contribute to preventing and reducing nutrient pollution.
Key Performance Indicators
- Contribution of recycled nutrients to the overall nutrients used for agricultural production (%)
- Decrease in inputs of nutrients into soils and aquatic environments (%)
- SDG #6 Indicator 6.3.2 “Proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water quality.”
Eligible Countries
- The following Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU): Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia. It includes the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) linked to some of these Member States:
- The following Third Countries associated to Horizon 2020 (AC): Israel, Tunisia, and Turkey.
- The following Third Countries not associated with to Horizon 2020 (TC), having concluded international agreements for scientific and technological cooperation setting out the terms and conditions of their participation in PRIMA: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco.
For more information, visit PRIMA.