Participation of IETU in Polish-Norwegian innovations

The Polish-Norwegian Research Programme, operated by the National Centre of Research and Development (NCBiR), is one of the largest bilateral projects of this type in Europe. The closing conference of the programme was held on November 21 in Warsaw. During the conference 6 projects selected from such areas as: climate change, environment, gender, social sciences and health were presented.

Under the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme grants of the total value of almost 71 million EUR were awarded and 75 interdisciplinary research projects in the field of environmental protection, climate change, polar research, social sciences, gender equality and carbon capture and storage were implemented.

During the conference Professor Maciej Chorowski, Director of the National Centre for Research and Development, emphasised that the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme had been providing financial support for scientific research carried out in areas of particular importance to the society. It is expected that the intensification of international cooperation, which effectively supports research and development works, will result in the implementation of many innovative projects.

Among the research units that received the above-mentioned grants is IETU, which together with partners from the Norwegian Water Research Institute implemented the project: Sustainable Water Strategy by Means of Tight-Knit Approach to Water Cycle in River Catchment - CRIS.

We have prepared a toolkit for decision-makers dealing not only with water management, but also with spatial planning, agriculture and environmental protection in the catchment. The website provides real-time information and short-term forecasts concerning e.g. water flow and water level in rivers, water quality, risk of quality degradation and depletion of water resources, groundwater resources, impact of changing conditions on water balance in the catchment and water quality, says Piotr Cofałka - Deputy Director of IETU for Research and Development and one of the implementators of the CRIS system.

– IETU has been cooperating with Norwegian partners for many years, emphasizes IETU Director - Jan Skowronek. Our key partners are the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) and the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), with which in 1992 we signed a cooperation agreement. Apart from research projects, we also carry out other projects financed from the Norway Grants. At the moment we are completing the project ETV4Water, carried out in cooperation with the Norwegian company Aquateam COWI and financed by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014. Our intention is to establish a Polish-Norwegian cooperation network for the verification of environmental technologies (ETV), which would integrate, i.a. scientific units, innovative technology research and development centres as well as analytical laboratories providing testing and analyses related to innovative water and wastewater technologies.