iWatermap project Partner meeting

From 24th to 28th of September the staff members of Water Research Laboratory Jānis Rubulis, Dāvids Štēbelis, Tālis Juhna and Jānis Zviedris (representing as well company Inducont and CleanTech Latvia) visited Leeuwarden (Netherlands). In these days were official kick-off meeting of the iWatermap project (https://www.interregeurope.eu/iwatermap/).

The meeting was dedicated for exchange of information regarding the critical mass in the water sector in all partner countries/regions.

The meeting was attended by several Latvian stakeholders. From RTU Engineering High School (http://www.izv.lv/?lang=en) joined chemistry teacher Laura Fjodorova, from CleanTech Latvia (https://cleantechlatvia.com/en/home/)  Evija Pudāne and Andrey Belogorsky (also representing company Karme Filtrs http://karme.com/en).

Within the framework of the iWatermap project, cooperation between the Latvian water industry stakeholders will be strengthened taking into account experience of the iWatermap consortium leader Wetsus (https://www.wetsus.nl/).

The iWatermap project has activated the collaboration of the Water Research Laboratory with CleanTechLatvia, which focuses on the development of research topics defined by the original equipment manufacturers. Also, better targeted cooperation with the RTU Engineering High School is expected for high school students to test their talent in research related to the water sector.

Within the framework of the project, the issue of lifelong learning in the water sector will be activated, which is critical for municipal companies in the context of the aging of employees, as shown by data collected by the State Employment Agency (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq4tLa1UCAM).

The iWatermap meeting was held at the same time as the European Water Tech Week (EWTW 2018), which brought together hundreds of stakeholders and during event sixth global water technology innovation hubs signed agreement of cooperation:

• Water Alliance (https://wateralliance.nl/en/) from the Netherlands
• Jiangsu cluster, located in the province, the second largest GDP investor in the Chinese economy,
• Mekorot (http://www.mekorot.co.il/eng/newsite/Pages/default.aspx) from Israel
• Yeungnam University (http://www.yu.ac.kr/en/main/index.php) from South Korea,
• PUB (https://www.pub.gov.sg/) Singapore National Water Agency
• Water Council (https://thewatercouncil.com/) from the United States.