the Partners

 The consortium was led by the Office International de l’Eau (OIEau – France) with ACTeon (France), IMDEA WATER (Spain), IACO (Cyprus/Greece), REC (Hungary/Central & Eastern Europe), REKK inc. (Hungary), BEF (Baltic States), SLU (Sweden), ENVECO (Sweden) SRUC (UK) and AMEC (UK) as partners. Further details on each partner can be found hereunder.

As illustrated in the following figure, the partnership covered all fields of expertise including biophysical, technical, socio-economic and governance/policy implementation. It covered different types of organisations from research and scientific organisations developing knowledge to consultancy providing support to policy design, implementation and evaluation at different decision making scales, in particular in Europe. 

Office International de l’Eau (OIEau) is a non-profit-making association gathering 149 member organisations with a permanent staff of over 100 people. Its primary focus is to develop skills for better water management, both nationally and internationally. It is active in the following domains: 1) Cooperation missions, studies and consultancy (to strengthen skills within institutions, to put strategies in place for integrated water resource management and the good governance of water supply and sanitation services) with specific expertise in the implementation of the WFD and the development of programmes of measures (including NWRM) for many countries; 2) Data and information management (To set up solutions for managing information on water and making it accessible, To standardize data exchanges in information bases); 3) Training in the water sector (Catalogue-based and tailored training programmes with 400 sessions and 12000 trainees per year, assistance in creating water training centres). OIEau is also the secretariat of the International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO). And it runs the EMWIS (Euro-Mediterranean Information System on know-how in the Water Sector). It has been instrumental in setting up an international network of water training centres.

ACTeon is a human size research and consultancy specialized in the development and implementation of environmental policies at the European, national and local level. Established in 2003 as a single person business, ACTeon is today composed of a team of about twenty experts that is part of an active European network working at the European level and in France, Central and Eastern Europe; activities have also been initiated in the Caucasus region and in the Mediterranean basin. Over the years, ACTeon has developed in environmental economics (including the valuation of ecosystem goods and services, economic instruments, financing, economic impacts...), social issues, governance and institutions, prospective/forward looking studies, facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes, science-policy interface and public policy evaluation. In terms of environmental focus, ACTeon is active in projects and research dealing with a diversity of environmental issues, in particular: the integrated management of water resources and the implementation of the WFD, the development of climate change adaptation strategies, the link between agriculture and the environment, marine resources and integrated coastal zone management, energy, biodiversity, forestry.... ACTeon’s expertise base and activities in other environmental policy areas relevant to the study includes also rural development (territorial diagnosis as support to sustainable development strategies) and nature protection and biodiversity (including the protection of wetlands). ACTeon is and has been involved in the development of river basin management plans, catchment management plans and programmes of measures at the national, river basin and local levels (including NWRM measures) in France and in around 15 EU MS.

Baltic Environment Forum (BEF) Latvia (BEF-Latvia) is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation active in the Baltic Sea region since 2003. Having a network of organisations in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Germany and Russia (called as BEF Group), the BEF provides regional knowledge and communication skills, as well as well-established stakeholders’ network in the Baltic Sea area to deal with various environmental issues. Since the beginning, water policy & river basin management has been a priority of the work program of the BEF. With adoption of the WFD and joining EU, the issues of cooperation on transboundary river basins, public and stakeholder engagement are in focus of the activities. Among characteristics of BEF projects are performance of high quality workshops and training courses for stakeholders at different levels. Meanwhile the BEF has collected and promoted good water management practices from Europe to the region, engaged stakeholders in practical water management measures by developing and implementing joint water projects. The BEF understand itself as facilitators and supporters to policy implementation. The working style and competencies of the team have resulted in trust of the regional stakeholders for closer and direct cooperation projects from local to interregional level.

I.A.CO Environmental & Water Consultants Ltd, a Cyprus leading Consultancy Company since 2004, specializes in the provision of high quality consultancy services in the fields of environmental and water management and protection. I.A.CO has been very active since its establishment on issues covered by the WFD and especially with the Water Scarcity and Droughts, through private, public or EU projects on issues such as dealing with water monitoring, supply/abstraction regulation and development, demand management, savings potential and options, ecological flows, non-conventional sources (desalination, recycled water), losses, pressures & impacts assessment, water treatment, water pricing and cost recovery mechanisms, and stakeholder and public participation campaigns.

IMDEA WATER is a non-profit organization (NPO), legally established as a research foundation. It gathers an interdisciplinary research team specialized in water economics and law. Beyond activities on RTD and innovation, research on water management issues is directed towards optimizing public and private decision-making processes. IMDEA has a very diverse scientific record. It includes the development of Computable General Equilibrium Models (CGEM) with specific applications to the environmental impacts of tourism and the integration of economic and hydrological variables, such as sediment transport and ecosystem response. Furthermore, much applied research work has been developed within the context of the WFD implementation. IMDEA has developed work on economic policy instruments (EPIs) for sustainable water management, such as innovative EPIs to tackle drought and scarcity. In addition, the team has developed a research line on the economic valuation of biophysical flows of ecosystem services, to estimate the economic value of water provision for a wide range of final uses (drinking water and sanitation, irrigated agriculture, industrial uses, hydropower generation, etc.), natural waste treatment ecological functions, recreational fishing, carbon fixation in histosoles (i.e. peat bogs) and biological diversity conservation. Yet, the economic valuation of ecosystem services is only a part of a much wider research line on the economic valuation of natural capital flows. All this work on water economics has been reinforced with a research line on stable and secure water rights, incentives to private investment in water services, water markets, regulation of water utilities (both public and private) and international investment protection regimes and their impact on water.

The REC is a non-partisan, non-advocacy, not-for-profit international organisation with a mission to assist in addressing environmental issues mainly in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It is a multi-stakeholder platform for policy development and capacity building at national, regional and local levels in CEE and beyond. Through its network of REC offices in 17 CEE countries^[1] the REC has a track record in implementing national, sub-regional and regional projects. The REC Water Management Topic Area is a horizontal inter-organisational pool of experts and working group made up of the relevant professionals of the REC. REC’s objectives include: to promote improved water governance, capacity-building and awareness; tostrengthen coordination through promoting river basin approaches; to assist countries in transboundary water issues through multi-stakeholder dialogue; to foster design and improvement of mechanisms in mitigating the effects of climatic changes concerning water scarcity, draught and floods; to reinforce integration of integrated water resources management into other relevant sectors such as energy, transport, agriculture, fisheries, regional policy and tourism.

  REKK Kft is a research and consultancy oriented think tank focusing on energy and water economics and policy, active primarily in Central and Eastern Europe and South East Europe, but also participating in EU-wide programs and occasional overseas assignments. The company has a permanent staff of about 20 experts, many of them active in academia as well, teaching at different universities in Budapest. Apart from scientific and methodological experience, including advanced modelling of natural resource and energy markets, the staff possesses considerable regulatory and public administration expertise. The water economics unit provides services in two fields: the regulation and operation of water utilities, and river basin management. It has extensive experience in benchmarking water utilities, consultation on water and wastewater pricing, including tariff modelling, implementation of EU water directives, river navigation, economic policy instruments in water management, flood control, water retention and excess water management. Central to REKK’s work is strong integrated assessment mobilising engineers, hydrologists, ecologists, and agricultural scientists.

Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) is an innovative, knowledge-based organisation, supporting the development of land-based industries and communities through our specialist research and development resources, education and training provision, expert advisory and consultancy services. Our work is wide ranging but there is a particular emphasis on agriculture and related sciences, rural business development and management, food chain quality and safety, and rural resource and environmental management. SRUC operates through its legal entity ‘SAC Commercial Ltd’ after the parent company SAC (Scottish Agricultural College) merged in October 2012 with three other agricultural colleges; Barony, Oatridge and Elmwood colleges. SAC Commercial Ltd is registered in Scotland No SC148684, and through its associate company, SAC Commercial Ltd, SRUC can provide a wide range of services to individuals, small and medium size enterprises, corporate clients, local and regional authorities, and government agencies and departments.

The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is one of Sweden’s leading universities. SLU has the primary responsibility for research on mitigation of nutrient losses from forested and arable land in Sweden, including extensive monitoring activities such as hosting the national long-term monitoring programs of forests, agricultural fields, small streams, rivers and lakes. SLU also hosts an interdisciplinary research centre, the SLU Water HUB, established for coordinating research on catchment scale modelling and assessment of water quality. The SLU team includes researchers from the Departments of Soil and Environment, Aquatic Sciences and Assessment and SLU Water HUB.

Enveco is an environmental economics consultancy based in Stockholm, Sweden. Enveco carries out analyses, research, education and training with a particular focus on the economic and social dimensions of sustainable development. Enveco’s staff has qualifications in the fields of economics, political science and environmental science. Since its inception in 2004, Enveco has been involved and/or coordinated a considerable number of international and national research projects and assignments, often with a focus on economic valuation of ecosystem services and cost-benefit analyses and impact assessment of projects involving environmental change. Enveco possesses particular expertise in aquatic environmental issues, manifested for example by several assignments for the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. Enveco’s work is mostly carried out in an interdisciplinary setting with close cooperation with natural and/or social scientists at universities, research institutes and consultancies.

AMEC Environment & Infrastructure UK is one of the UK's largest environmental and engineering consultancies. Our business forms part of AMEC, a global supplier of consultancy, engineering and project management services with more than 29,000 employees.  Within AMEC E&I UK we have a long established history of working in the water sector, and our expert team of technical hydrologists, hydrogeologists and hydro-ecologists works on diverse projects including: flood modelling; groundwater and recharge modelling; agricultural land management; sediment and nutrient transport; effects of climate change on flows and water resources; wetland hydrology.  We work widely on the Water Framework Directive, including for the European Commission, regulatory authorities in the UK, and on local site-specific investigations.  We also have a strong flood business, whose work spans both technical modelling and policy development and implementation, and who work closely with our landscape design team on urban developments and green infrastructure.