Blog
Welcome to the AquaticPollutants blog, where we post updates from TransNet and the 18 funded research projects. Check out the articles to stay up to date!
11 August 2023
FOREWARN Summer School
During the FOREWARN Summer School from 15-16 June 2023, 8 students from Spain, France, Finland, Greece and Serbia came together in Dublin, Ireland. Their aim: Learning something about new tools to assess contaminants of emerging concern in the aquatic environment.
20 July 2023
SERPIC project develops a methodology how to select indicator CECs
Organic and microbial contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) are important to addressin reclaimed water reuse projects. SERPIC presents a new methodology for the selection of the most representative CECs , in particular for the evaluation of the performance of a polishing treatment and the assessment of the risk for the environment and the irrigated crops.
7 July 2023
Cross-Cutting Issue #3 Meeting
Networking the #AquaticPollutants research projects that are focused on the #research and application of technologies for the removal of CECs, #AMR and pathogens from #wastewater – that is the aim of our Cross-Cutting Issue #3. On Wednesday, the projects met and discussed what they want to accomplish with this cross-cutting issue.
4 July 2023
Press Release: Midterm Results available
The Midterm Meeting of the ERA-NET Cofund AquaticPollutants took place in Alcalá de Henares (Spain) from 30 May to 1 June 2023. The focus was not only on the results of the different projects so far, but also on various networking activities and joint discussions.
5 May 2023
SPARE-SEA: Test your knowledge with a game
The SPARE-SEA project has developed a game that allows everyone to test their knowledge of OysterLand, the place where the land meets the sea. It is a location where people, agriculture, and aquatic animals mix. It is also a place where bacteria are exchanged between land and sea and everything in between. Play OysterLand and join SPARE-SEA in looking at how antibiotic use influences the inhabitants of OysterLand.
18 April 2023
FOREWARN: Taking samples in Spain
In March, a team of the FOREWARN project took samplings in the Ebro Delta and in Albufera de València, both located in Spain, to investigates the levels of CECs, ARG, ARB, and emerging viruses together with physicochemical information and metadata about stressors. Read more about the sampling avtivities in the article.
4 April 2023
ARENA: Making aquaculture safer and more sustainable
As part of the ARENA project activities, two sampling campaigns were carried out during the summer and winter of 2022/2023 in the “charming pearl” of the Ligurian Riviera di Levante (Portovenere, Italy). What did the samples show? What further analyses will be done? Read more in the article.
9 March 2023
SPARE-SEA: Digging up dirt on the resistance of bacteria in oysters
How can microbial background influence the acquisition of new strains in the oyster microbiom? This is one of the question that Spare-Sea wants to answer. Read more about the work of Spare-Sea, what they reached in 2022 and what their plans for the future are.
9 March 2023
SARA is making progress!
Method harmonization, training of African partners, ongoing monitoring, and stakeholder forum meeting: The SARA project which determines the prevalence of, e.g., pathogenic viruses, microbial indicators and antibiotic resistance in wastewater, surface water, and coastal seawate can report a lot of progress!
9 March 2023
Finally: REWA project partners meet!
In the beginning, the project consortium has held the planned Executive Board and General Assembly meetings via online platforms since travel was restricted as a result of the pandemic. Therefore, the partners were exhilirated to be able to finally meet at a physical REWA Workshop held in Tel-Hai College in Israel from 29 January to 1 February 2023. FInd out more about the project and the workshop.
9 March 2023
NATURE: Nature-based solutions to reduce antobiotics, pathogens and AMR
The project Nature demonstrates the use of nature-based solutions (NBS) as management option for reducing the presence of antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance and pathogens in aquatic ecosystems. What they found out: The use of NBS as secondary or tertiary wastewater treatments results in a greater removal of antibiotics than conventional wastewater treatment solutions.
9 March 2023
18 months of PHARMASEA
After 18 months from the beginning of the PHARMASEA project, preliminary results of the first large scale field investigation allow to characterize pharmaceuticals in seawater, sediments and biota from different trophic levels. Read more about the project's work in the article.
9 March 2023
NanoTheC-Aba: Pre-concentration of CECs and AMR bacteria by ultra-nano filtration and abatement by thermocatalytic nano-powders
NanoTheCAba set itself the goal to deliver an energy efficient new integrated prototype system for water purification. Find out more about the system and what the project managed to do in the first 15 month in the article.
9 March 2023
GreenWaterTech: Reactive nanoadsorbents to remove micropollutants
Find out about GreenWaterTech's recent progress of the water cleaning technologies they develop for the ultra-filtration prototype.
9 March 2023
AIHABs: Water sampling campaigns during 2022 Algal blooming season
In summer and autumn 2022, AIHABs project conducted three water quality sampling campaigns in the Belesar Reservoir and the Miño Estuary in Spain. The three sampling campaigns concided with the periods before, during, and after the algal blooming season. What did the project find in the samples? And what will the obtained data be used for? Find out more in this article.
28 February 2023
Interview with Esther Diez-Cebollero from Water JPI
Water JPI is one of the Joint Programming Initiatives that set up the ERA-Net Cofund AquaticPollutants. We asked Esther Diez-Cebollero, the coordinator of Water JPI, what the tasks and goals of Water JPI in the Cofund are, why the transfer project is so important and what the future holds for the Cofund.
14 December 2022
APTransNet: We published our first deliverable
In our first deliverable, "Mapping of end-user groups and governance and synthesis of their demands for knowledge", we present the results of the stakeholder survey and show an overview of the knowledge gaps and knowledge demands of different stakeholder groups in the water sector.
25 April 2022
PRESAGE: Potential of decentralized wastewater treatment to prevent the spread of AMR, organic micropollutants, pathogens and viruses
The PRESAGE project has identified the organic micropollutants to be studied, which include antibiotics, and have already set up their treatment technologies. Read the article to find out more about their treatment approach and next research steps.
15 April 2022
PHARMASEA: From Science to Society
PHARMASEA is concentrating on the distribution of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in coastal areas with the aim of developing needed risk assessment procedures. As a first step, they’ve already identified the 13 core APIs which will be the focus of the project’s experiments. See what else the consortium has accomplished so far and where you can look for updates.
14 April 2022
APTransNet: Interview with TransNet's Corinne Merly & Maité Fournier
The 1st work package of the TransNet project deals with identifying key water stakeholders and their knowledge demands. This research serves as the foundation for TransNet to improve the transfer and uptake of research results. We interviewed two of our partners about their research and its role in our project.
13 April 2022
AMROCE's first steps towards the reduction of AMR in water bodies
AMROCE is working to tackle the problem of AMR from another direction: instead of treating water resources, AMROCE aims to limit the use of antibiotics in the first place by developing novel antibiotic-free antimicrobial products.
12 April 2022
SERPIC: Selected target CECs steer the technological process chain development
The SERPIC project aims to develop a new electrochemical technology to treat urban wastewater so that compounds of emerging concern (CECs) are reduced to a level so that the water can be used for crop irrigation.
10 April 2022
Kick-Off of the AquaticPollutants Core Synergy Forum
One of the main methods to exchange with the 18 funded projects is through the AquaticPollutants Core Synergy Forum – a group comprised of all 18 project coordinators, the ERA-Net Cofund Management Team and the TransNet project. This group met for the first time in March 2022 and kicked off the collaborative nature of the AquaticPollutants Cofund.
08 April 2022
SPARE-SEA: Oyster Meta Resistome Libraries Provide Interesting Reading for SPARE-SEA Partners
Why are oysters important in understanding the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB)? How may human activity influence the presence of bacteria in oyster seafood? This article from SPARE-SEA introduces the chosen oyster culture areas to be studied and outlines the first steps and results.
