“We don’t have an energy crisis; we have a water crisis.”
Projects
“We don’t have an energy crisis; we have a water crisis.”
I have been grateful for the opportunity to lead multi-million-dollar science projects. It’s important to note, however, that I approach these endeavours with a sense of pride in the potential impact they may have on our understanding of the world. What’s most important to remember is that these ventures stand as collaborative efforts, reflecting the dedication and support of visionary partners.
While the scale of funding underscores the significance of our research work, I remain modest, as I fully understand the responsibility to utilise resources judiciously and deliver meaningful contributions to humanity’s scientific knowledge.
Hence, why I navigate the challenges inherent in these ambitious scientific pursuits with a deep appreciation for teamwork, hard work, and a commitment to greatness.
Summary: The ENHANCE project aims to support the preservation of at-risk coastal ecosystems by developing three new products that will analyse the pressures from urban, agricultural, and climate extremes in coastal areas, along with their impacts. It adopts a One Health approach, offering services to assess specifically the impact of water quality on biodiversity, public health, and the environment, further utilising the Copernicus Marine Service.
Duration: 2025 – 2028
Title: Enabling One Health Coastal Management through advanced AI over Marine Copernicus and citizen science - ENHANCE
My Position: Work Package Leader
Budget: 1,701,375.00 €
Summary: ENFORCE aims to promote sustainable practices and ensure environmental regulatory compliance within and between organisations. The project will establish a pan-European collaboration hub introducing the concept of Data Readiness Level (DRL) to assess data for legal purposes and leverage geospatial intelligence and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the overall objective to advance environmental governance practices in line with the Green Deal Data Space initiative.
Duration: 09/2024 – 08/2028
Title: Empower citizens to join forces with public authorities in protecting the environment – ENFORCE
My Position: Scientific Project Leader
Budget: 7,336,248.75 €
Summary: THE PROJECT will provide innovative means in terms of monitoring devices and schemes of data analysis and management and a network of monitoring stations close to Transport emission hots, in order to remedy the traceability of the emitted pollutants from transport sources to the atmosphere and the assessment of applied legislation and control measures through a mitigating solution Toolbox.
Duration: 01/2024 - 12/2027
Title: MItigating TRansport-related Air Pollution in Europe - MI-TRAP
My Position: Work Package Leader
Budget: 5,541,423.21 €
Summary: ARSINOE is an EU-funded project aimed at creating climate resilient-regions through systemic solutions and innovations. With the collaboration amongst 41 partners, the ARSINOE project will shape the pathways to resilience by bringing together SIA (Systems Innovation Approach) and CIW (Climate Innovation Window) with the purpose to build an ecosystem for climate change adaptation solutions.
Duration: 10/2021 - 09/2025
Title: Climate resilient – regions through systemic solutions and innovations - ARSINOE
My Position: Project Coordinator
Budget: 15,643,021 €
Summary: The BIONEXT project produces new evidence to better understand biodiversity loss and demonstrates how biodiversity underpins every aspect of life; the water we drink, the food we eat, and our health. BIONEXT’s goal is a sustainable society, where links between biodiversity, water, food, energy, transport, climate, and health are acknowledged and nature and biodiversity are a part of everyday choices and policymaking.
Duration: 09/2022 - 08/2026
Title: The biodiversity nexus: Transformative Change for Sustainability - BIONEXT
My Position: Co-leader of Work Package 1
Budget: 5,000,000 €
Summary: NEXUSNET is an international network of researchers collaborating with universities, research institutions, policymakers, and the business sector to better understand how the water-energy-food Nexus fosters policy coherence and biophysical interactions in the domains of water, energy, and food, supporting the transition towards a circular and low-carbon economy in Europe.
Duration: 9/2021 - 9/2025
Title: Network on water – energy – food nexus for a low – carbon economy in Europe and beyond - NEXUSNET
My Position: Action Chair
Budget: 760,000 €
Summary: The NATALIE project aims to address the risks posed by climate change and advance the concepts of "ecosystem-based adaptation" in Europe through impact-driven Nature-Based Solutions. In essence, 42 partners from 13 countries unite to use nature-based solutions to enhance resilience to climate chance in Europe.
Duration: 9/2023 - 8/2028
Title: Mainstreaming transformative nature-based solutions to enhance resilience to climate change - NATALIE
My Position: Work Package Leader
Budget: 18,152,930 €
Summary: NEXOGENESIS is a 4-year European collaborative project financed by the European Commission under the H2020 programme. It gathers 20 partners from Europe and South Africa focusing on facilitating the next generation of effective and intelligent water-related policies using artificial intelligence and machine learning to assess policy impacts on the WEFE nexus to suggest new ways to design better, more harmonious policy.
Duration: 09/2021 - 08/2025
Title: Facilitating the next generation of effective and intelligent water–related policies utilizing artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning to assess the water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus - NEXOGENESIS
My Position: Work Package Leader
Budget: 4,998,625 €
Summary: The MAGO project will attempt to demonstrate novel solutions to enhance integrated water resources management for a sustainable agriculture in the Mediterranean Region. These solutions will boost water use efficiency in agriculture, the use of alternative water resources and climate change adaptation.
Duration: 5/2021 - 4/2024
Title: Mediterranean wAter management solutions for a sustainable aGriculture supplied by an Online collaborative platform - MAGO
My Position: Work Package Leader
Budget: 2,500,000 €
Summary: SMARTEN was an Erasmus+ project based on serious gaming models, to support digital transition and readiness, with focus on higher education, professional training, and the water sector. The goal was to promote a digital educational environment of equity and inclusion, whilst also strengthening strategic cooperation between higher education institutions and business partners in the European water sector, the end result of which was to contribute to more efficient management of limited water resources.
Duration: 3/2021 - 2/2023
Title: Serious gaMes for digitAl Readiness of waTer EducatioN - SMARTEN
My Position: Work Package Leader
Budget: 247,331 €
Summary: LOTUS was a project funded by DG Environment under the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme and by the Indian Government. It brought together EU and Indian prominent organisations with the aim to co-create, co-design and co-develop innovative robust affordable low-cost sensing solutions for enhancing India’s water and sanitation challenges in both rural and urban area.
Duration: 2/2019 - 1/2023
Title: LOw-cost innovative Technology for water quality monitoring and water resources management for Urban and rural water Systems in India - LOTUS
My Position: Work Package Leader
Budget: 2,500,237 €
Summary: NanoSWS addressed the significant challenge of water management and sanitation by improving pollution monitoring and intervention on contaminated waters. The impacts of NanoSWS included sustainability, increased environmental protection, food and water security and significant economic growth for the agricultural sector.
Duration: 1/2019 - 12/2021
Title: Integrated nanotechnologies for sustainable sensing water and sanitation - NanoSWS
My Position: Work Package Leader
Budget: 662,792 €
Summary: The Water4Cities project relied on sensor technologies, data, and visual analytics to enable localization, visualization, and analysis of urban water (both surface water and groundwater) at a holistic urban setting providing services to multiple water stakeholders.
Duration: 3/2017 - 2/2021
Title: Holistic Surface Water and Groundwater Management for Sustainable Cities - Water4Cities
My Position: Coordinator
Budget: 1,242,000 €
Summary: SIM4NEXUS increased the understanding of how water management, food production and consumption, energy supply and land use policies are linked together, and how they relate to climate action.
Duration: 6/2016 - 5/2020
Title: Sustainable Integrated Management FOR the NEXUS of water-land-food-energy-climate for a resource efficient Europe - SIM4NEXUS
My Position: Work Package Leader
Budget: 7,895,658 €
Summary: ISS-EWATUS was an EU-funded project, the main objective of which was to exploit the untapped potential for saving water in municipalities and individual households. To increase the awareness of water consumption at the household level, an information system for gathering, interpreting, and sharing data about water usage was also planned.
Duration: 2/2014 - 1/2017
Title: Integrated Support System for EfficientWater Usage and ResourcesManagement - ISS-EWATUS
My Position: Work Package Leader
Budget: 3,377,632 €
Summary: EU funded project developing a novel automated networked system that enables real-time in-situ monitoring of seawater chemical and ecological status.
Duration: 12/2013 - 8/2017
Title: Sensing toxicants in Marine waters makes Sense using biosensors - SMS
My Position: Work Package Leader
Budget: 5,559,819 €