CIRSEAU – Building a water-smart economy and society

Coordination, dissemination and exploitation of circular water solutions

B-WaterSmart, REWAISE, ULTIMATE, WATER-MINING and WIDER UPTAKE all shared the objective of identifying alternative water sources, reducing water consumption, increasing use efficiency, recovering valuable materials from water, producing carbon-free water cycles, and increase resilience to climate change. To better leverage the resources from the European Commission, the five project created the CIRSEAU Cluster, connecting 143 partners in more than 20 countries, to share knowledge and promote synergies. The CIRSEAU project builds on and expand the CIRSEAU Cluster activities.

Funded as a Coordinated and Support Action (CSA), the CIRSEAU project plays a key role in further enabling the Cluster collaboration and maximising the impact of circular water solutions. CIRSEAU ensures that the Cluster’s circular solutions are better understood, and widely adopted and implemented to address challenges of water scarcity, pollution, and climate adaptation. By focusing on coordination, dissemination and exploitation, the CIRSEAU project accelerates the adoptions of relevant solutions to societal challenges, aligning with policy goals, and supporting the transition to a circular economy in Europe.

Contribution to a circular economy in Europe

To accelerate the transition to a circular economy in the water sector, CIRSEAU brings together circular water solutions and establishes a collaborative ecosystem within the Circular Water Economy Community developed through EU projects. Starting from the CIRSEAU Cluster, the project expands to other EU projects’ solutions and stakeholders, enhancing market uptake, collaboration and knowledge sharing of circular solutions.

The project consortium includes 10 partners from 6 countries—Belgium, German, Greece, The Netherlands, Morway and Spain— bringing together the multidisciplinary expertise and transnational collaboration necessary to foster cross-promotion, ensure communication alignment, and achieve impactful outreach to public authorities, policy makers, and standardisation bodies

Stakeholder engagement and a permanent CIRSEAU ecosystem

KWR coordinates the engagement of stakeholders throughout the project and the establishment of a permanent ecosystem within the Circular Water Economy Community to accelerate the uptake of the most promising circular solutions in the years to come.

By providing tools and guidance for stakeholder mapping, engagement and feedback processing, KWR lays a solid a foundation for meaningful and effective stakeholder engagement. Best practices and tailored engagement methodologies will ensure sustained stakeholder interest while minimizing engagement fatigue, aligning project activities with the diverse needs of stakeholders across the Quintuple Helix.

Broad stakeholder engagement will serve as the foundation of the CIRSEAU ecosystem. KWR will develop guidelines and actionable recommendations to support a bottom-up, co-designed process for its creation while also coordinating the process. By connecting suppliers, users, and administrations, the CIRSEAU ecosystem aims to facilitate the implementation of safe, integrated circular water solutions in Europe. Through the consolidation of best practices, sharing of actionable insights, and identification of collaboration opportunities, the ecosystem will drive market uptake and influence public policy. Its capacity for continuous adaptation will ensure responsiveness to emerging challenges, serving as a valuable reference for institutions and initiatives advancing the circular water economy. Drawing on its experience in establishing collaborative ecosystems, such as the ICT4WATER Cluster, KWR will coordinate the process to ensure the CIRSEAU ecosystem remains dynamic, inclusive, and capable of scaling the adoption of circular water solutions