Between 23 and 24 January 2023 took place in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands (Spain), the first in-person meeting of the whole consortium.
The increase in global temperature, the depletion of natural resources and continued biodiversity loss, undermine our security and prosperity.
The Water Sector is at the core of the environmental debate. Water is, quite simply, the most essential natural resource on the planet. Global water challenges affecting water resources, such as climate change, population growth, increasing urbanization and ageing infrastructure, continue to intensify.
The European Green Deal was stated as one of the six ambitions/objectives for Europe described by Ursula von der Leyen in 2019. It will drive us forward to climate neutrality by 2050 and at the same time focus on adaptation. The key strategy for the period 2019-2024 is and will be the Twin Transition to a green and digital economy firmly grounded in the objectives of the European Green Deal. No attempt to establish a Green Economy can be successful if it does not involve the water sector in all its facets. An important advance towards such progress faithfully reflects the second factor of the Twin Transition: Digitalization.
NICEST is motivated by the need for a green approach to water treatment, where digital innovation plays a key role looking forward to the European Green Deal challenge.
The NICEST consortium consists of 9 universities across Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece and Romania) and one research centre from Greece, in addition of 15 industrial partners:
- UAB, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
- ULE, Universidad de Leon (Leon, Spain)
- ULPGC, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Las Palmas, Spain)
- UGAL, “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati (Galati, Romania)
- CRA, University of Craiova (Craiova, Romania)
- UNIBS, University of Brescia (Brescia, Italy)
- UNIPV, University of Pavia (Pavia, Italy)
- UTH, University of Thessaly (Thessaly, Greece)
- IHU, International Hellenic University in Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki, Greece)
- CERTH, Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas (Thessaloniki, Greece)
The new envisaged programme has as its main goal the education of professionals able to take decisions considering the operational, technological and social aspects in Water Management, specifically water reuse and desalination from an integrated engineering perspective, by covering technological, engineering and scientific related subjects.
The duration of the programme is two-years by full-time study (120 ECTS). Intended structure is:
- Common first year where the basics of Industrial Control, process engineering, water and environmental management, biological processes are covered.
- Elective second year according to the expertise (wastewater, water reuse, desalination, etc).
- Master project according to the expertise but including co-supervision with an external advisor that complements with needed engineering and technological aspects.
NICEST project (November 2022 – February 2024) is funded by the European Union through the Erasmus Mundus Design Measure ERASMUS-EDU-2022-EMJM-DESIGN 101082.
More information: https://www.nicest-eu.org
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