Strategic Input Paper
A contribution to the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda
The One Water Alliance presents its Strategic Input Paper, developed as a contribution to the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for EIT Water, the future Knowledge and Innovation Community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
Developed through years of collaboration and strategic dialogue, the paper brings together the collective expertise of more than 200 experts from over 25 countries, translating this collective expertise into a common strategic vision for Europe's Water Economy.
Response to the Call for Evidence
On the European Ocean Research and Innovation Strategy
The European Union maintains strong scientific and technological foundations in ocean science, yet promising blue-economy solutions frequently stall between technological validation and commercial or operational deployment. EU blue economy SMEs face an estimated financing gap of €60-70 billion. Testing and observation infrastructure remains unevenly distributed across sea basins, and regulatory and permitting complexity continues to slow deployment. We consider this to be primarily an implementation challenge rather than a knowledge challenge and recommend that the Strategy be designed and evaluated accordingly, with priority given to closing this gap. This is the same diagnosis, and the same remedy, that we set out for freshwater in our parallel submission: in our view, the priority now lies with deployment rather than discovery, and each recommendation that follows is framed with that priority in mind.
Response to the Call for Evidence
On the Water resilience research and innovation strategy
Europe is home to world-leading scientific excellence, technological capability and industrial strength across the freshwater, marine and maritime domains. Yet the challenge facing Europe today is no longer primarily one of knowledge generation. Increasingly, it is a challenge of implementation: translating innovation into deployment, investment, market creation and measurable societal impact. Meeting existing EU water legislation alone requires at least €255 billion in investment by 2030, against a persistent annual shortfall of approximately €23 billion1. Many water innovations already reach Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 or beyond, yet stall before reaching commercial scale, held back by fragmented innovation ecosystems, scarce scale-up finance, regulatory complexity, skills shortages and weak market pull. We consider that the Water Resilience R&I Strategy should be designed and evaluated as a deployment agenda, with success measured by innovations reaching the market, water-stressed regions achieving resilience, and entrepreneurs building sustainable water businesses, rather than solely by the volume of research funded