ZWU Projekte

FUTURE WATER

Das Minsterium für Innovation, Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes NRW fördert seit Juli 2014 das Fortschrittskolleg NRW FUTURE WATER. Im strukturierten Promotionsprogramm gehen 12 Promovenden der Etablierung und Sicherstellung einer nachhaltigen Wasserwirtschaft nach. Sechs Arbeitsgruppen der Universität Duisburg-Essen sowie das KWI sind am Kolleg beteiligt. Fünf weitere Projekte werden bei Partnern der Ruhr-Universität Bochum, der Hochschule Ruhr-West, der EBZ Business School und dem IUTA e.V. bearbeitet. Zahlreiche weitere ZWU-Mitglieder und externe Partner beteiligen sich am Netzwerk des Kollegs.

Laufzeit: 2014-2018 (Option auf Verlängerung um 4,5 Jahre)

Förderung: ca. 2,5 Millionen Euro

Koordination: ZWU

MARS

MARS is a research project and supports European policies, such as the Water Framework Directive,
and the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Water Resources.

We have two target groups: "water managers" assessing and restoring rivers and lakes; and policy makers drafting and implementing policies related to water.

Our main objectives:

• To understand the effects of multiple stressors on surface waters and groundwaters, their biota, and the services they provide to humans
• To understand how ecological status and ecosystem services are related – if at all
• To advise river basin management how to restore multiply stressed rivers and lakes
• To advise the revision of the Water Framework Directive on new indicators for ecological status and ecosystem services
• To develop methods and software for the Programmes of Measures

DAAD Serial Summer School Water in Urban Life 2020 - transition towards sustainable water resource management in urban systems?

EU COST Action DNAqua-Net

Together with our colleagues, we have successfully applied for an EU COST Action that we will be coordinating from University of Duisburg-Essen. The aim is to for an internationally leading team of aquatic biodiversity researchers / geneticists to develop new tools for bioassessment.

"DNAqua-Net - Developing new genetic tools for bioassessment of aquatic ecosystems in Europe"

The protection, preservation and restoration of aquatic ecosystems and their functions is of global importance. For European states it became legally binding mainly through the EU-Water Framework Directive (WFD). In order to assess the ecological status of a given water body, aquatic biodiversity data are obtained and compared to a reference water body. The quantified mismatch thus obtained determines the extent of potential management actions. The current approach to biodiversity assessment is based on morpho-taxonomy. This approach has many drawback such as being time consuming, limited in temporal and spatial resolution, and error-prone due to variation of individual taxonomic expertise of the analysts. Novel genomic tools can overcome many of the aforesaid problems and could complement or even replace traditional bioassessment. Yet, a plethora of approaches are independently developed in different institutions, thereby hampering any concerted routine application. The goal of this Action is to nucleate a group of researchers across disciplines with the task to identify gold-standard genomic tools and novel eco-genomic indices for routine application for biodiversity assessments of European water bodies. Furthermore, DNAqua-Net will provide a platform for training of the next generation of European researchers preparing them for the new technologies. Jointly with water managers, politicians and other stakeholders, the group will develop a conceptual framework for the standard application of eco-genomic tools as part of legally binding assessments.

Scientific lead: Prof. Dr. Florian Leese

Grant manager: Dr. Alexander Weigand

Management committee: click for further information

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) funded Innovative Training Network (ITN) ATBEST

Biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, is a source of carbon neutral energy for electricity generation, heating and transport, which can make a significant contribution to Europe’s climate change commitments. However, the production and utilisation of biogas is not yet sustainable, relying on government subsidies to ensure the development of biogas infrastructure is an economically viable investment.

Funded by the European Union, the ATBEST Marie Curie ITN will tackle several key research challenges along the biogas supply chain, improving its competitiveness with respect to fossil derived fuels and increasing the sustainability of the biogas industry in Europe.

The project is a collaboration between eight partners located in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Sweden. It is a multidisciplinary collaboration between internationally-renowned research teams and industrial partners, each with complimentary expertise in a wide range of environmental technologies. 14 researchers have been recruited, each working on an individual research project in one of the following areas:

• Feedstock sustainability and digestion (Work Package 2)
• Process monitoring (Work Package 3)
• Biogas upgrading and supply (Work Package 4)
• Optimum biogas utilisation (Work Package 5)

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) funded Innovative Training Network (ITN) REMEDIATE

REMEDIATE is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) funded Innovative Training Network (ITN). The network is made up of 10 beneficiaries from five EU member states - the UK, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, and Italy - and 10 partner organisations. All participants in the project are committed to providing innovative research and training for more cost effective and sustainable remediation of contaminated land.

The network is a multidisciplinary collaboration between internationally renowned research teams from academia and industry, each with complementary expertise in a wide range of site investigation and risk assessment technologies.

13 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) have been recruited and are taking part in a structured and integrated research and training programme to provide them with a highly specific blend of personalised technical and transferable skills.

Each research project is designed to benefit the contaminated land sector through development of techniques and tools across a range of disciplines relating to site investigation and risk assessment, to provide better informed solutions for remediation.

The researchers are getting joint supervision from both academic and industry mentors, which will enhance their career prospects.

The REMEDIATE network will strengthen and enhance existing collaborations between the participating beneficiaries and partner organisations resulting in a cohesive and dynamic network.

The outputs will be a new generation of highly mobile, creative and innovative entrepreneurs with the skill sets necessary to address the technical, economic and social challenges facing the contaminated land sector in Europe, both now and in the future.

The network has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n.643087. REMEDIATE is co-ordinated by the QUESTOR Centre at Queen's University Belfast.

Work Packages

WP2:  Environmental chemistry and toxicology approaches to site assessments

WP3:  Rapid molecular microbiology assessment approaches to assessing bioremediation

WP4:  Geophysical approaches to site assessment

WP5:  Computational modelling and prediction approaches to estimate contamination profile, forecast contamination development and assessment remediation options