Kompetenznetzwerk Wasserressourcen GmbH (“K-net”), which is managed by Hans Zojer, will be transformed into a new enterprise this autumn; the privatisation process has been completed. Zojer hopes to win the European Commission as a major client such as for pan-European groundwater recharge projects, which would also help to sell more Austrian know-how to foreign countries. K-net’s future therefore appears to hugely depend on the EU, which since 2004 has had its own coordinating agency for research and technology: the Water supply and sanitation Technology Platform (WssTP). The objective of WssTP is to develop adequate solutions for future water issues and to connect representatives from industry (as lead partner), science and politics with waterworks representatives and end users.
Focus is on contributions for efficiency enhancement and financing opportunities – issues which the WssTP largely shares with the EU’s Directorate General for Competition. The EU, the governments of the member states and various EU candidate countries, via the socalled Mirror State Members Groups (MSMG), recognise the WssTP as a reference in the research and technology sector.
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(Source: aqua press Int. 3/2009, Mag. Christof Hahn)
