Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) – storing water in aquifers during times of excess – is a key strategy to enrich groundwater resources in water scarce regions by providing intermediate storage, addressing the typical mismatch between water demand and availability. It can help to mitigate the effects of climate change, and to support water-related environmental services. MAR is, however, characterized by complex interaction of physical, biological and hydrochemical processes influencing water quality and the sustainability of infiltration rates. Individual processes are in principal known, but there is a significant knowledge gap on how they are linked and affect each other. An in-depth understanding of their interplay can lead to MAR systems tailored for best performance in terms of water storage, water polishing goals, infiltration rates, economic viability, and adaptation to climatic change. MARSoluT addresses this knowledge gap by a collaborative effort in a multi-disciplinary team. Activities are organized around the existing field sites of previous EU FP7 project MARSOL that are already highly characterised and instrumented to allow further in-depth studies and experimental approaches. This will lead to new insights into the complex and coupled processes at MAR sites and will help to optimize MAR design and operation, and thereby minimizing risk of MAR failure. Excellence in research and technological innovation are ensured by involving partners from renown research organizations as well as SMEs and industry partners with a strong background in the water sector. MARSoluT ESRs will get hands-on experience at various MAR sites while tackling specific MAR-related research topics in an interdisciplinary team. MARSoluT ESRs will become experts on the tailored planning of MAR systems making them attractive for employers from research, industry, and regulatory agencies which are eager to implement MAR into sound and safe Integrated Water Resources Management concepts.

Property data are one of the most valuable datasets managed by governments worldwide and extensively used in various domains by private and public organizations. Unfortunately these data are not always easy to access. House and property data is used in a variety of ways to produce value added information within and across several business sectors, including real estate and debt collection. Such sectors suffer from a lack of innovation due to a fragmented data ecosystem which makes it difficult to access relevant datasets. This hampers innovation, protects incumbents and promotes rent-seeking business models. The difficulty in creating a single, open data market partly depends on the fact that some governmental agencies are currently making significant revenues on selling data to a restricted number of business players in the private sector. However, several studies, demonstrated that the transaction costs for government agencies tend to be very high, and often make selling the data non-profitable. proDataMarket aims to disrupt the property data market and demonstrate innovation across sectors where property data is relevant, by integrating a technical framework for effective publishing and consumption of property-related data, showcasing novel data-driven business products and services based on property data. proDataMarket will provide a digital data marketplace for open and non-open property and related contextual data, making it easier for data providers to publish and distribute their data (for free or for a fee) and for data consumers to easily access the data they need for their businesses. The consortium is formed by large companies ensuring high-impact business cases, technology transfer providers ensuring technologies for the creation and maintenance of the data market platform, and large data providers providing data for the business cases. With strong industry involvement proDataMarket will cover a wide range of data value chains related to property data.

Forests are key elements of the European bioeconomy. To enhance provision of their ecosystem services (ES), harnessing Forest Genetic Resources (FGR) is essential. OptFORESTS will support the conservation and sustainable use of FGR by: i) conducting research on the selection of diverse forest reproductive material (FRM), including mixtures, adapted to future climates, ii) fostering sustainable use and resilience of natural forests, iii) helping expand and diversify nursery production, iv) developing nature-based solutions (NBS), tools (e.g., expanded Information Systems) and cultural trajectories to promote forest biodiversity and ES, and v) demonstrating biodiversity restoration solutions. To do this, OptFORESTS will carry out genetics, modelling, stakeholder surveys, expert panels and socioeconomic analyses. OptFORESTS will evaluate adaptive and biomass traits in existing common gardens and newly-established next-generation ones, conserve and utilise unique tree lineages for ecosystem restoration and management, model future adaptation of trees at different life stages and conduct low-input breeding. This will be complemented by studying the effects of silviculture and landscape heterogeneity on genetic diversity and developing new silvicultural options for genetically mixed forests, which will be implemented via training software (marteloscopes) and long-term demonstration plots. To enable optimal supply of diversified FRM, OptFORESTS will assess the European nursery sector, forecast future FRM needs, develop plant production technology and promote cooperation between nurseries. To ensure the uptake of NBS, they will be co-designed with local and EU-level stakeholders and a cost-benefit and gap analysis of key socio-economic, governance and policy issues will be developed. Finally, the OptFORESTS tailored communication strategy will be instrumental in achieving long-term impacts supporting international and EU policy under the European Green Deal.