Call: Smart Water Management for Sustainable Society

Water is a core resource for human wellbeing and has been playing an essential role in the world’s socio-economic development. In industrialised nations, industries consume more than half of the water available for human use. Globally, about 70% of accessible fresh water is drawn by agriculture and about 20% is used for energy production3. Despite its critical role to humans, water cannot be distributed equally as its main sources such as rain and snow depend on regional geographical conditions. In addition, climate change, global warming, rapid demographic changes including urbanization have caused various global challenges such as severe flooding and droughts, food crises and regional armed conflicts, all of which have become grave concerns which hamper the world‘s sustainable development. This call aims to contribute to the overall challenge of water sustainability by inviting research teams from both Europe and Japan to collaboratively explore new areas of smart water management. The collaborative activities will fall in line with the United Nations 2030 agenda.

Which countries and institutions are participating?

The following national and regional funding organisations have agreed to participate in this joint call, leveraging their national and regional R&D programmes and applying their respective funding regulations:

Bulgaria: Bulgarian National Science Fund (BNSF)
Czech Republic: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS)
Czech Republic: Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS)
France: National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
Germany: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Japan: Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
Lithuania: Agency for Science, Innovation & Technology (MITA)
Poland: National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR)
Slovakia: Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS)
Türkiye: The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBITAK)

How should project consortia be composed?

Each project consortium submitting an application should consist of at least 3 eligible beneficiaries (project partners), 1 from Japan and 2 from two different European countries participating in the Joint Call.

Partner Search Tool

In order to facilitate the process of forming research consortia, we offer applicants a Partner Search Tool – Partfinder available here: https://partfinder.ncbr.gov.pl/. This tool can be used by projects looking for partners and partners looking for projects.

Can researchers from other European institutions participate?

Researchers and research teams from other European institutions may participate as additional partners in a project consortium if they can prove that they have secured funding from other sources that allows them to fulfil their obligations within the consortium. A confirmation letter of the external sponsoring institution has to be submitted at the time of proposal submission.

What if I have questions?

If you have questions, please contact the EIG Concert-Japan Program Secretariat, Ms. Lea Debraux, at concert-japan-jcs@cnrs.fr, or the National and Regional Contact Person for your country or region.