Leeds will be the UK and Ireland’s headquarters for a new European Knowledge and Innovation community that will tackle water scarcity, droughts and floods.
The new community called EIT Water brings together Europe’s best minds from businesses, research centres and higher education institutes.
water@leeds, which is based at the University of Leeds and is one of the largest interdisciplinary centres for water research at any university in the world, will play a key role in delivering EIT Water.
water@leeds directors Professor Joseph Holden and Professor Martin Tillotson said the centre’s international reputation for working on major projects and experience in working with multiple stakeholders will deliver effective solutions for tackling the most urgent water challenges facing the continent.
Professor Holden said: “We need to join up and turbocharge everything that is being done in Europe to resolve water issues. It’s not just about the impact of floods and droughts. We want to tackle eco system degradation in both freshwater and marine environments.
Our work will involve joined up thinking, project co-design across sectors and stakeholders, better education, and the development of new technologies and services.
“Ecosystems have been under increasing stress due to the overuse and mismanagement of natural resources. We want to develop an integrated approach to better protect those resources and provide resilience to ‘shocks’ while allowing a flourishing economy and underpinning societal wellbeing.
“Our work will involve joined up thinking, project co-design across sectors and stakeholders, better education, and the development of new technologies and services.”
Professor Tillotson added: “We will be the central UK partner as well as being the host of the UK and Ireland’s Co-location Centre. It is such a great opportunity for us to work with other universities and businesses across Europe to ensure water resources are sustainable in the long term.
“We hope companies will come here to work with us and graduates in this field will stay here in the region if there is a strong water sector being developed. It should provide a great boost to the regional economy.”
There are already nine Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) funded by the European Institute of Technology covering areas including climate change (EIT Climate) and digitalisation (EIT Digital).
EIT Water launches this month and will be fully operational by the start of 2027. The partnership is expected to become financially sustainable over time by leveraging close cooperation between education, research and business.
Dr Susannah Hopson, Research Development Manager at the University of Leeds, who supported the bid development, explained that EIT Water will have three objectives over the coming years:
• Support entrepreneurial education and water management courses from apprenticeships to PhDs.
• Create and accelerate start-ups and boost private investment.
• Support innovation-driven research.
The other hubs for EIT Water, known as Co-location Centres, will be at Berlin in Germany, Antwerp in Belgium, Vienna in Austria, Sibenik in Croatia, Malaga in Spain and Varna in Bulgaria with overall co-ordination from Aarhus in Denmark.
Further information
To find out more about the winning EIT Water bid, watch this video.
For further information contact EITwater@leeds.ac.uk or email Jane Lewis in the University of Leeds press office.