Sustainability of Critical Water Resources through Advanced Wastewater Treatment as part of the Green Deal Strategy

The main objective of the AQUA-DEAL is to boost research excellence and innovation capacity of the Institute for Nanomaterials, Advanced Technology and Innovation at Technical University of Liberec (TUL-CXI) in advanced wastewater post-treatment technologies through selected twinning activities with leading international research institutions: Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH, Germany) and Universitat de Girona (UdG, Spain). The AQUA-DEAL is focused on advanced post-treatment technologies for effective residues removal, particularly micropollutants, from wastewater treatment plant effluents to allow water reuse and water resources protection. To achieve this, nanofiber/microfiber biomass carriers enabling fast and stable fixation of microorganisms, and highly effective sorption materials graphene oxide, reduced graphene and carbon nanotubes will be used. In particular, following twinning activities will be performed to decrease networking gaps and deficiencies between TUL-CXI and leading research organizations to advanced TUL-CXI research excellence, strategic networking and creativity: • intensifying collaboration, knowledge transfer and hands-on experience through short- and long-term intensive trainings, seminars, experts’ visits, and summer schools; • strengthening links to research community and industry through wide-range networking activities, participation in conferences and visits to potential end-users (pilot sites, companies); • boosting research management and administration skills through introducing new principles and methods gained in short-term intensive courses and joint project preparations within relevant international research programmes. On the other side RWTH and UdG will benefit from the project by raising their research profile, creditability, and amplifying their research and innovation capacity via developing a sustainable knowledge transfer framework within the project – AQUA-DEAL Industrial Research Incubator.