The Opening Plenary of NEWAVE’s ‘Next Wave of Water Governance’ Diffused Conference
The opening plenary of "The Next Wave of Water Governance" was held on 4 April 2024. This event marked the start of the NEWAVE’s Diffused Conference, organised to share the network’s journey and experience, and to give space to the Early Stage Researchers to present their research findings.
The Diffused Conference was designed with two key objectives in mind. The first objective was to provide attendees with an opportunity to process and assimilate the knowledge gained from the various research projects and their findings. Academic conferences often lack sufficient time and concentration to focus on all the interesting topics. The NEWAVE network has therefore decided to adopt a different approach. This is why we have decided to hold a ‘diffused’ conference, consisting of a Conference programme spread over 8 months with recurring appointments. The second reason for this approach is to enable people from all over the world to access and contribute to the different sessions online. Furthermore, the sessions are made available on our YouTube channel.
The conference, which takes place from April to December 2024, commenced with an Opening Plenary. This session featured the project’s participants who provided an overview of the network's achievements and experience. The Coordinator and Principal Investigator, Dr. Jampel Dell’Angelo, gave the welcoming remarks, introducing the different guest speakers, and reflecting on the work done by the network. He also emphasized the importance of collaborative innovation in the governance of shared natural resources, such as water. The next speaker was our Scientific Project Manager, Caterina Marinetti, who highlighted the network's role in developing research and training for the next generation of water governance leaders, equipping them with transdisciplinary skills to tackle water challenges. This was followed by a contribution from ESR11 Shahana Bilalova, who shared her experience as a PhD candidate of the network and reflected on the “Virtual Lab 4”, a ESR-organised space that offered numerous benefits to the NEWAVE researchers: itfacilitated the development of peer-to-peer mentorship and support, as well as the sharing and receiving feedback on ideas and research progress. Additionally, it fostered a sense of community and support among the team.
After reflecting on the NEWAVE journey, it was time for our keynote speaker, Dr.Giorgos Kallis (ICTA-UAB and NEWAVE advisory board member), to reflect on his view about the program. With a background in water governance, he is now a leading expert on degrowth. Dr Kallis shared his reflections on the need to create actionable research but also preserve research that is not actionable in our times, to contribute to the groundings and foundations of knowledge and philosophy of our societies. Following hismotivating speech, the discussion turned to the outcomes of the NEWAVE program. In the relatively short time since its inception, the program has already delivered a number of valuable outputs, including a Policy Brief on “Fostering reflection in water governance”, a Water Governance Atlas & Toolbox, a Water Governance MOOC, a documentary on water governance and a call for papers for the special feature at the academic journal Ecology & Society. This figure is complemented by the numerous training events and seminar series that NEWAVE has held over recent years, as well as the reports presented at events such as the UN Water Conference. To reflect on these activities and outputs, the participants were divided into breakout groups and engaged in interactive discussions on the various topics.
Following the discussions, all attendees returned to the plenary session. ESR 13 Marie Belland introduced the Water Governance Atlas & Toolbox, a transdisciplinary tool developed by the network to bridge the research of our ESRs and the wider academic community, mainly intended for civil society and social collectives. After this, Gregor van Essen, Director of The Water Agency, and Emanuele Fantini, Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the IHE Delft, presented the NEWAVE MOOC and its main contributions to society. We also shared the trailer for the NEWAVE documentary, which will be released soon.
The seminar series was introduced to the audience, providing information on the topics and ESRs that will present their work in the upcoming months. This was the start of a series of discussions on water governance, as well as a process to collect and nurture findings for future possibilities. We are now ready to begin.
