Digital Water Ecosystems Mapping

This report presents the results of the study, performed in the context of the project “Transforming Advanced Water Skilling through the Creation of a Network of Extended-Reality Water Emulative Centres” (WATERLINE), about local innovation ecosystems in the field of digital water in the 8 countries covered by WATERLINE Higher Education Institutions’ (HEI) partnership. These countries are: Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Serbia, the UK, and Türkiye. WATERLINE's main goal is to build a network of universities in Europe, focusing on digital water education. This will be based on a unique innovation model involving the university, industry, government, and society. We aim to do this at chosen universities across Europe with the long-term goal of growing WATERLINE's research, education, and business opportunities. This is to take advantage of the resources we have at individual, institutional, and regional levels. The project ultimate aim is to bring about significant and lasting changes to how we learn and innovate in this area. Investigating the local innovation ecosystems in digital water allows for understanding of the state of the art in the field, as well as for defining means of strengthening the participant HEIs role in their local innovation ecosystems. The study adopted the quadruple helix model of innovation and smart specialisation strategies (S3) as the theoretical framework to encompass the digital water ecosystems and their stakeholders’ roles. Examples revealed how digitalisation of the water sectors has been framed in policy documents and how the sector has progressed in the different countries by means of digital water ecosystem arrangements, e.g., digital water clusters and living labs, and mostly how S3 has been instrumental in the definition of priorities related to smart water and local ecosystems development. Considering the capacity building approach of WATERLINE, with its inclusion of widening countries, it was possible to identify the gaps and potentials in terms of the knowledge of and adoption of digital water ecosystems across the different countries. A SWOT analysis reveals the overall findings of the study while the recommendations are based on WATERLINE’s project plan. Overall, WATERLINE should co-create a roadmap for capacity building taking into consideration the above recommendations and the transferability of the responsibility for its implementation to local stakeholders after the end of the project. The project sustainability planning must build local engagement for its success.