AQUACOSM-plus advances European mesocosm-based aquatic RI by integrating the leading mesocosm infrastructures into a coherent, interdisciplinary, and interoperable network covering all ecoregions of Europe. AQUACOSM-plus widens the user base by extending TA provision (> 13000 person-days), and strengthening the offered services, with 10 new partners, including a NGO and doubling of SMEs. We initiate actions to increase competence in mesocosm science in new EU member states (Hungary and Romania), and emphasize training of young scientists through summer schools covering various disciplines including effective science communication. AQUACOSM-plus develops near-real-time Open Data flows and improved metadata, thus promoting Open Mesocosm Science in collaboration with leading EU-supported initiatives in the EOSC and fosters wider sharing of information, knowledge, and technologies across fields and between academia, industry, and policy makers/advisers. AQUACOSM-plus develops new technological capabilities for mesocosm research, to effectively execute scenario-testing for Climate Change -related pressures on aquatic systems from upstream fresh waters to the sea. These developments include mobile large-scale mesocosm approaches, leading-edge imaging technologies, and affordable methods to obtain high-frequency data on community change and greenhouse gas fluxes in mesocosm settings. AQUACOSM-plus will progress beyond current achievements by actively pursuing RI-RI collaboration with European environmental RIs (LTER, ICOS, DANUBIUS, JERICO) at all project activity levels (NA, JRA, TA). Multidisciplinary joint research, combining observational data and modelling approaches with targeted mesocosm experiments, is a key step towards successfully tackling current and future Grand Challenges. This involves shared capacity building via symposia, expert summits, and open workshops, with the aim of co-designing future aquatic research actions and their RI demands.

DANUBIUS-PP is a three-year project to raise DANUBIUS-RI (International Centre for Advanced Studies on River-Sea Systems) to the legal, financial and technical maturity required for successful implementation and development. DANUBIUS-RI is a pan-European distributed research infrastructure (RI) building on existing expertise to support interdisciplinary research on river-sea (RS) systems, spanning the environmental, social and economic sciences. It will provide access to a range of RS systems, facilities and expertise, a ‘one-stop shop’ for knowledge exchange, access to harmonised data, and a platform for interdisciplinary research, education and training. DANUBIUS-PP will bring together key stakeholders at different levels, and strengthen the consortium through a process of wide engagement. Individual work packages will refine, inter alia, the scientific and innovation agenda, the legal framework, governance and management, and policies for access and data management. The financial requirements of the RI will be refined to assist funding agencies as they consider future spending priorities. Key deliverables of DANUBIUS-PP include development of the legal and financial agreements for the components of the RI (including Hub, Nodes and Supersites), their governance, and internal organisation which will be confirmed via a Memorandum of Understanding. This preparatory phase project will develop the structures and processes to ensure that the RI strengthens scientific performance by providing a sustainable basis for future operation, delivering key services to the different user communities.

BEYOND will train the next generation of water professionals who will deliver scientific and technological innovation across disciplines, institutions and countries needed to solve European water quality problems in an era of global change. In the last decade, some improvement in understanding of water pollution has been achieved but there are still significant knowledge gaps, especially in the context of climate change and emerging contaminants, coupled with a lack of systems approach and operational tools required by water management. To address water quality pressures, we need to better target heterogeneity in the land-water continuum, accounting for recipient-specific sensitivity to pollution pressures and the spatial and temporal variation in sources, pathways, and impacts on stream ecology and ecosystem services, now and under future climatic conditions. BEYOND will equip Researchers with critical technical and communication skills needed to provide evidence-based management of landscapes and river networks under current and future conditions. They will gain expertise in interdisciplinary catchment science, novel high-resolution water quality sensors and models, gain access to cutting-edge water quality instrumentation in experimental catchments in Europe and through secondments to SMEs, and skills in citizen science. BEYOND Researchers will become leaders in innovation and knowledge exchange needed to achieve water quality improvements, through effective interactions with public and private stakeholders during secondments and short visits.

RESTORE4Cs aims to assess the role of restoration action on wetlands climate change mitigation capacity and a wide range of ecosystem services using an integrative socio-ecological systems approach. Focusing on coastal wetlands across Europe, RESTORE4Cs will deliver standardised methodologies and approaches for the prioritisation of restoration promoting carbon-storage and greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions abatement, while improving the ecological status and the provision of additional ecosystem services such as flood regulation and coastal erosion protection. Project results will support the implementation of Climate and Biodiversity policies in the context of the European Green Deal. Effectiveness data on restoration and land use management actions on climate services and other ecosystem and socio-economic services will be gathered both from six Case Pilot sites across European coastal areas, including well-preserved, altered, and restored wetlands, and from meta-analysis. Models and integrative assessment tools will be upscaled to wider geographical (European) and ecological (other wetland types, including floodplains and peatlands) contexts using remote sensing and machine learning methods to develop an integrated status assessment of European wetlands. The results will be integrated into a digital platform to serve as a Decision Support System (DSS) for stakeholders that will steer project efforts as part of a newly created Community of Practice around wetland restoration.