4 December 2012: Two EU projects, STEP-WISE and STREAM, concluded their work with the issuing of a “Roadmap for Uptake of EU Water Research in Policy and Industry” at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.

The final conference of the two projects convened under the theme “Building Bridges – Facilitating Water Information Exchange between Science, Policy and Industry” and concluded with a session at the European Parliament on 4 December 2012. The event brought together 67 participants from 12 countries, representing policy, research, industry and other sectors. The conference focused on how to enhance communication and dissemination of the projects’ water research results. Discussions fed into development of a “roadmap” document on the subject.

The roadmap recommends: adopting a professional communication strategy, including e-learning; having the European Commission (EC) provide resources and online tools for making research results available after the project ends; disseminating research results by linking them to policy guidelines available on the WISE-RTD Water Knowledge Portal; using standardized policy briefs describing how results are relevant to the EU and its member States; and organizing information campaigns and thematic conferences. [European Water Partnership Press Release]