Reclaimed water has a strong potential for complementing conventional water resources. According to the European Commission communication “Closing the loop - An EU action plan for the Circular Economy” (COM(2015)0614): “in addition to water-efficiency measures, the reuse of treated wastewater in safe and cost-effective conditions is a valuable but under-used means of increasing water supply and alleviating pressure on over-exploited water resources in the EU”. Water reuse is especially relevant in agriculture as this is one of the main water consumers, having additional benefits for farmers: lower cost compared to other solutions (e.g. desalination), reliability of supply regardless of season, climatic conditions and associated water restrictions, and nutrients contribution of the treated wastewater that can supplement or replace conventional fertilizers. Based on the results of a previous EU project called SuWaNu (contract number 319998) whose main result was to set research driven clusters in the field of water reuse in 5 target countries: Malta, Spain, Germany, Greece and Bulgaria, SuWaNu Europe is intended to bridge the current innovation gaps and achieve an effective implementation of reuse solutions in agriculture. SuWaNu Europe will extend the geographical coverage of its predecessor and will summarize, share and present existing and upcoming knowledge and skills in the field of water reuse in agriculture to the relevant stakeholders such as farmers and farming advisory groups. SuWaNu Europe will also create regional working groups for the development of action plans. These action plans will set strategies at regional level with the objective of boosting innovation in the agricultural and water sectors, improving best practice development and identifying the most appropriate channels to reach stakeholders. In addition to this, dissemination and training will create the capacity and competencies needed to implement these results.

FARMWISE transforms the EU agricultural sector by empowering farmers and decision-makers with a state-of-the-art decision support system, combining precision agriculture, Artificial Intelligence, and remote sensing. FARMWISE provides new insights into water quality, quantity, soil health, and nutrient management. FARMWISE's state-of-the-art framework fosters knowledge sharing between scientists, farmers, and policymakers in a co-creation environment (Systems Thinking). It consolidates existing collaborations, and promotes new long-term cooperations between European organisations, including Water4All (BRGM) and Water Europe (SITES). The FARMWISE project will develop improved tools based on artificial intelligence (AI) for more efficient European water policy and decision-making founded on research-based technologies to solve the most burning water pollution and climate change problems. For this purpose, the FARMWISE consortium brings together the best European water, agricultural, climate, and AI researchers to handle the sustainability of water resources, the natural environment, and efficient agriculture in the highly diverse European landscape in view of present and future climate change. FARMWISE's impact will increase interest and bond cooperation of quadruple helix stakeholders for science-based solutions. FARMWISE evaluates, monitors, and implements gender and diversity balance in the consortium during the planned activities (T7.4). All partners' have established policies to foster gender equality, diversity, and inclusion for all employees. UEA holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of good practice in recruiting, retaining, and promoting women in STEMM subjects.

It is demonstrated that Nature Based Solutions (NBS) efficiently and effectively contribute to climate adaptation. However NBS need to be adapted locally and to be coherently chosen in order to assure sustainability and “no side effects”. To achieve this, ARCADIA will mobilise 8 European regions and communities – from Italy, Croatia, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia - to accelerate NBS adoption and assist them in accessing up-to-date, evidence-based actionable knowledge, guidance, knowledge-intense tools and services, mutual learning and networking opportunities. The project will foster enabling conditions to accelerate regeneration using NBS, by analysing individual and socially determined perceptions of risks and solutions, and experimentally designing incentives and behavioural nudges fostering social acceptance and community actions. In ARCADIA, the definition of regional ambitions and of methodologies and approaches co-developed at consortium level, will be followed by the implementation of 15 co-innovation labs with the engagement of the interested communities and societal partners; the learning across policy areas will be exploited to up-scale and deploy at large scale the solutions in the regions, developing robust policy and economic tools (regulations, funding schemes, business models, investment tools). Strategic objectives of the proposal are: 1. Co-design regional strategies to accelerate transformative adaptation, building upon and mainstreaming innovative, actionable NBS with demonstrated feasibility, effectiveness and social value 2. Assist and empower communities, public administrations and businesses 3. Stimulate collaborative knowledge building and transfer, developing capacities and capabilities 4. Promote coherence and exploit synergies, value and production chains, and public and private spheres of business innovation 5. Advance EU research & innovation agenda on NBS and EU Mission Adaptation.

The main objective of MOSES is to put in place and demonstrate at the real scale of application an information platform devoted to water procurement and management agencies (e.g. reclamation consortia, irrigation districts, etc.) to facilitate planning of irrigation water resources, with the aim of: • saving water; • improving services to farmers; • reducing monetary and energy costs. To achieve these goals, the MOSES project combines in an innovative and integrated platform a wide range of data and technological resources: EO data, probabilistic seasonal forecasting and numerical weather prediction, crop water requirement and irrigation modelling and online GIS Decision Support System. Spatial scales of services range from river basin to sub-district; users access the system depending on their expertise and needs. Main system components are: 1. early-season irrigated crop mapping 2. seasonal weather forecasting and downscaling 3. in-season monitoring of evapotranspiration and water availability 4. seasonal and medium/short term irrigation forecasting Four Demonstration Areas will be set up in Italy, Spain, Romania and Morocco, plus an Indian organization acting as observer. Different water procurement and distribution scenarios will be considered, collecting data and user needs, interfacing with existing local services and contributing to service definition. Demonstrative and training sessions are foreseen for service exploitation in the Demonstration Areas. The proposed system is targeting EIP on Water “thematic priorities” related to increasing agriculture water use efficiency, water resource monitoring and flood and drought risk management; it will be compliant to INSPIRE. This SME-led project address to the irrigated agriculture users an integrated and innovative water management solution.

The WATERAGRI vision is to solve agricultural water management and soil fertilisation challenges in a sustainable manner to secure affordable food production in Europe for the 21st century. The WATERAGRI concept aims to introduce a new framework for the use of affordable small water retention approaches for managing excess and shortage of water as well as better recovery of nutrients from agricultural catchments applying a multi-actor approach. The objectives are to (a) Co-develop (multi-actor approach) the links between agricultural land and soil-sediment-water management for improved management of water excess and shortage, maximizing crop production and improving water quality and nutrient uptake by crops; (b) Undertake both technical and sustainability assessments of proposed measures considering tested and reviewed management options; (c) Develop a cloud-based simulation and data assimilation system based on a physically-based terrestrial system model, which is able to assimilate in situ and remotely sensed observations of hydrological and plant variables and meteorological data in near-real time to analyse effects of structures such as drains and dams for improved farm-scale water management and retention; (d) Identify, develop and test affordable and easy-to-implement long-term technical and operational farm solutions such as controlled drainage, regulated deficit irrigation, subsurface irrigation, groundwater recharge, farm constructed wetlands, soil management and nutrient recovery options; (e) Assess the techniques for their potential regarding adaptation to climate change and their impact on ecosystem services for different biogeographic regions using case studies; and (f) Disseminate the implemented innovations to farmers, advisory services and decision-makers as part of a multi-actor approach. The key performance indicators are increased crop production, enhanced nutrient recovery from streams and a simulation and data assimilation system.