Welcome to the 11th edition of the UPWATER newsletter, the last edition for 2025! As we wrap up an exciting and productive year, we’re happy to bring you an update on the progress we’ve achieved, highlights from our ongoing work, and key results that mark important milestones for the project. You’ll also find announcements about upcoming activities, along with updates from our partners and the ZeroPollution4Water Cluster. And although this is the last newsletter of 2025, we will continue next year, with new developments ahead and three final dissemination webinars in March 2026. Stay up-to-date and dive in!

During the Researcher’s Night, Evgeny Bulatov introduced the Ceramic Passive Sampler (CPS) technology to local farmers and took part in discussions on how water quality can influence agricultural productivity and long-term sustainability. We'd like to thank Promoció Ciutat Sant Feliu, the Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC), and all collaborators for hosting both the Ideathon and the Researcher’s Night, as well as to all participants for their valuable insights on efficient water management and quality monitoring.

Smart City World Congress, Barcelona
This key international event focused on urban innovation and sustainable solutions. Our project partner CSIC presented the Ceramic Passive Samplers (CPS) developed, tested, and validated within UPWATER, together with tools for their installation and a prototype of the web-based data processing platform. These demonstrations fostered constructive discussions on advancing urban water quality monitoring. Our communication partner, Future City (FC), was also present at the event. Arjan Ankerman (FC) visited the stand of the start-up AWA Monitoring, where he observed how CPS technology is progressing toward market application.

Webinar: Market Uptake for New Technologies – Lessons from Practice
This lunchtime session invited experts and stakeholders to explore the pathways, challenges and enabling conditions for bringing innovative technologies to the market. The event drawed on the colla-borative work within the ZeroPollution4Water Cluster, sharing practical insights and policy-relevant recommendations.

Evgeny Bulatov (CSIC) and Arjan Ankerman (FC) at the Smart City World Congress

At this moment, our work in UPWATER focuses on evaluating and advancing Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for water treatment, particularly through the operation and analysis of the  NBS pilot plant and its related technologies. Recently, the team in the Stengarden Case Study has been verifying the presence of a newly detected metabolite that may point to unique metabolic processes occurring within biofilters. While the analytical work in the Stengaarden team is being finalised, the pilot sites research approaches completion. This includes shutting down the pilot plant and ensuring proper disposal of materials.

At the same time, in the Besòs Case Study, passive sampling devices - including Ceramic Passive Samplers (CPS), Viral Passive Samples (VPS) and Diffuse Gradients in Thin Films (DGT) - have demonstrated strong performance in capturing and assessing contaminants such as contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), metals and viruses. These findings strengthen our understanding of removal efficiencies and microbial shifts within the pilot system. In Besòs, the team is also analysing groundwater samples from recent campaigns, and continuing detailed assessments of microbiological changes and pollutant removal. In parallel, efforts are underway to transition the CPS technology toward practical deployment: arranging pilot tests with accredited laboratories and validating the method for commercial use.

Looking ahead, the consortium is preparing several scientific papers - covering pilot-scale processes, iron-dependent degradation in Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) systems, and groundwater characterization - and developing new tools such as a web-based calculator for deriving time-averaged concentrations from CPS data. These activities support both the scientific impact of the project and the innovation pathway, including the advancement of AWA Monitoring as a CPS-based commercial solution.

In the last few months, participatory workshops with key stakeholders took place in all three case studies. The output of the discussion of these workshops will inform us in the preparation of the UPWATER policy briefs, including demonstrating feasible pathways to implementation for local stakeholders.

Participatory workshop in the Besòs Case Study

Read the full article on Identifying Governance and Policy Priorities to Prevent and Mitigate Groundwater Contamination in the Besòs and Athens Region. 

Interested to stay up-to-date on all our activities? Follow UPWATER on LinkedIn!

The Ceramic Passive Sampler (CPS) technology, developed at CSIC and further strengthened and matured within the UPWATER project, is now being introduced to the market through the creation of the spin-off AWA Monitoring, ensuring that the technological progress continues beyond the project’s lifetime.

AWA Monitoring will bring CPS technology to the water industry through an integrated offering that includes the sampler, associated services, and a digital platform. This combination, built around the versatility of CPS, is designed as an adaptable solution to meet the growing requirements for monitoring organic contaminants across the water industry. The initiative has already received several recognitions, including the recent 2nd premium at the Santander X Spain competition, where it has been selected from among over 800 projects presented by entrepreneurs from 70 universities across the country. 

This recognition highlights the potential of AWA Monitoring for large-scale deployment and adoption to address the global challenges of water contamination.

Silvia Lacorte and Evgeny Bulatov (CSIC), co-founders of AWA Monitoring                      Ceramic Passive Samplers (CPS)

Water Knowledge Europe 2025
2-4 December | Brussels
This Winter Edition of WKE brings together researchers, innovators, industries, utilities, policymakers, investors, and stakeholders from across Europe and beyond, all united by the shared goal of advancing a Water-Smart Society and Economy. 

CONOMA National Congress
3 December | Barcelona
UPWATER's project partner FNCA will  participate with an oral presentation on the 3rd of December in Viladecans (Barcelona) in the CONAMA local. CONAMA is a national congress about broad environmental topics celebrated  in Madrid. The CONAMA Local derives from it and runs throughout the country.

Today in the spotlight: Sandra Grutter, visual designer of the UPWATER project, working at Future City Foundation.

"In the UPWATER project, I support the team with tailored graphics, visual designs, and illustrations for (online) communications and events. My background in graphic design and marketing originates from my studies at the University of Fine Arts in Utrecht, The Netherlands, followed by more than 18 years of experience in creative agencies.
What I enjoy most is developing infographics for information packages and webinars. For example, I create illustrations that visualise proposed measures to mitigate groundwater pollution in the three UPWATER case studies, as well as the Nature-Based Solutions within the UPWATER and other projects. 

My goal is to provide a clear and engaging preview of these measures before implementation, ensuring the content is both visually appealing and easy to understand."

Sandra Grutter (FC)

About the ZP4W Cluster:
The ZP4W Cluster is an initiative that origi-nated from the coalition of seven different water projects, all funded from two Horizon Europe 2022 calls.

The cluster aims at creating further collaboration and synergy between the sister projects, developing co-operation actions with other projects running and future projects and other initiatives, such as co-funded and co-programmed partnerships.

In the previous UPWATER newsletter, we introduced five new ZP4W Cluster projects: LIFE CASCADE, D4RUNOFF, LIFE ELEKTRA, NIAGARA and LIFE PRISTINE.

Welcoming three more projects, UNIVERSWATER, URBAN M2O and UrbanQuantum, the ZP4W Cluster has grown to 15 projects in total at this moment. 

All 8 new projects will give a pitch presentations during the Water Knowledge Europe side event of the ZeroPollution-4Water Cluster (event details below).

More information about the new cluster projects will soon be launched at the ZeroPollution4Water Cluster website.

Next week, the ZeroPollution4Water Cluster event "Towards a Water Pollution-Free Europe: Building Synergies, Expanding Collaboration, and Strengthening the Cluster’s Impact” will take place as a side event of the Water Knowledge Europe 2025 – Winter Edition. 

This ZP4W Cluster event marks a key milestone, as it will serve to welcome and onboard 8 new projects, revisit the structure and leadership of the Working Groups, and define a common roadmap for future collaboration. UPWATER will present a poster during the “Networking Coffee & Poster Session” to showcase its goals and objectives to (new) cluster members.

More information can be found here. 

Interested to stay informed about the ZP4W Cluster? We keep you updated about the cluster activities via the ZeroPollution4Water website and the LinkedIn page of the cluster!

UPwater is an EU Horizon project. It focusses on Understanding groundwater Pollution to protect
and enhance WATERquality. Read more about the project and our project partners on our website.