B-WaterSmart (2020-2024) will enable water-smart systems, societies and economies that are more resilient to climate change impacts and supportive of a thriving European water-dependent business. To achieve this, the Project consortium brings together six coastal European cities and regions as Living Labs - Alicante, Bodø, Flanders, Lisbon, East Frisia, and Venice - in a large-scale systemic approach to select, connect and demonstrate tailored suites of innovative technology, management, and interoperable smart data solutions for multiple users and sectors.

The systemic innovation approach is based on the co-creation of solutions by ‘Communities of Practice’ (CoPs) and a joint ‘Innovation Alliance’ (INALL) of problem-owners; it builds on collaborative work with stakeholders, development of solutions for societal, regulatory and governance issues, supporting methodologies to enable a systematic and strategic planning towards systemic innovation for water-smartness, and capacity building. B-WaterSmart will develop a novel framework to assess gains in water-smartness and sustainability, including quantitative and qualitative aspects, to develop policy scenarios, explore strategies, the implications of socio-economic and technological development and the interaction of driving forces towards long-term resilience, whilst strengthening circular economy (CE) synergies along the nexus water-energy-resources and generating new business models.

ICS-ULisboa coordinates the Work Package Society, Governance & Policy, which aims at providing guidance on societal and behavioural issues, in support of the CoPs, analyse the drivers and barriers for the implementation of water-smart solutions, and propose new models of governance for the transition to a water-smart circular economy in the LLs.