News

Final ATWARM meeting

On 12/13th November 2013, QUB will host the final ATWARM meeting. We look forward to seeing the whole ATWARM team for a review of the projects achievements and outputs.

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EU Prize for female innovators 2014

The competition for EU Prize for Female Innovators 2014 is open until 15th October 2013.

After a successful first edition in 2011, the European Commission has launched the second edition of the EU Prize for Women Innovators to reward three women who have developed outstanding innovations and brought them to market.

The contest is open until 15 October 2013, 5:00 pm (Brussels time) to all women who have founded or co-founded their own company and who have at some point in their career benefited from the EU's research framework programmes or the Competitiveness and Innovation framework programme.

The first prize is EUR 100,000, second prize EUR 50,000 and the third prize EUR 25,000.

With this Prize, the European Commission aims to raise awareness about the contribution, potential and importance of Women researchers to entrepreneurship and to encourage women to exploit the commercial and business opportunities offered by their research projects and become entrepreneurs.

Compete and tell your story now to inspire other women to follow in your footsteps!

Applications can be submitted via the competition website until 15 October 2013 (5 p.m. Brussels time): www.ec.europa.eu/women-innovators

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Congratulations Cecilia!

QUESTOR and the ATWARM group extend their congratulations to Cecilia Fenech on the submission of her PhD thesis and accomplishment of her PhD viva (oral exam) at DCU.

Cecilia's next post as a 'Research Fellow in Renewable Energy' will see her working within the School of Applied Sciences: Department of Environmental Science and Technology:  Centre for Energy and Resource Technology (CERT) at Cranfield University. Here, she will support the development of a new demonstration facility for anaerobic digestion and thermal conversion of biomass and biogenic wastes.

Well done Cecilia!

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A sea safari in Dublin


ATWARM fellows were joined by a group of ISGEI (International SmartOcean Graduate Enterprise Initiative) students at the final summer schhol in Dublin in June 2013.

Delegates had the opportunity to learn from experienced business people, consultants and researchers regarding development and applications of tools and techniques for water quality monitoring. Other aspects of the school discussed how to communicate with the media, careers guidance and job applications, writing grant applications. Students presented their research experiences to-date, and participated in group activities to develop a new research proposal.

Many thanks to all who contributed to the success of the Irish summer school - not least to the fantastic organisers and hosts at DCU.

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Summer School 3 - Monitoring water quality: sensors & analytical techniques ; Quality Systems


The third ATWARM summer school will take place in June 2013 in Dublin, Ireland.

The event will run from 24th until 27th June, and will feature talks from industry, industrial site visits, laboratory tours - focused on the themes of water monitoring and sensor deployment, as well as quality systems.

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Successful conference

'Water: the greatest global challenge’ (14-16th May 2013) - the ATWARM international conference - was a resounding success. All thanks to the speakers who made it an event well worth attending.

Interesting talks highlighted water challenges and opportunities in Ireland, Europe, Africa, China and Brazil. Technical talks across the 3 day conference presented research outputs and innovations for nutrient removal & recovery, removal of metals, remediation of contaminated groundwater & surface water, water monitoring and the water-energy nexus.

A particular highlight of the event was the address by Alex Attwood MLA – who endorsed the work of QUESTOR and the research being undertaken by the ATWARM consortium:

"This event demonstrates where we need to go in cross boundary research particularly on the critical issues facing our nations including water quality and management.

"Within Europe and the Island we need to cooperate and integrate our efforts on economic, environment and  social issues. That need is acute in Ireland. That is why I acknowledge the great work of Questor out of Belfast working with its Irish and European partners to develop research on water management and technologies. This is where we need to go-all island, all islands all Europe cooperation. 

"This research programme is funded through FP7. This makes the wider point. Dublin is miles ahead of Belfast on accessing European funds generally and FP7 in particular.

"As we approach 2014 and the start of Horizon 2020 the successor programme to FP7, we in Belfast must stretch our ambitions in the image of what has been achieved in Dublin."

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Register now for “Water – the greatest global challenge”

14th – 16th May 2013, at the Helix, Dublin City University

This conference will look at the future global concerns for the water sector and has attracted a number of high profile speakers, both from industry, academia and government bodies.
An EEN Brokerage Event will feature on the second day of the conference – providing an opportunity to arrange 1-1 business meetings. Prior registration is required at http://www.b2match.eu/atwarm2013 (before 1st May 2013)

Speakers at the conference include:

  • John Tierney CEO Irish Water
  • Robert Schröder, European Commission, DG Environment
  • Joe Higgins, Veolia
  • Martin Curley, Vice President of Intel Corporation
  • Richard Elelman, Netwerc H2O
  • Denis Gray, North Carolina State University, National Science Foundation, USA
  • Mark Oelmann, Economics Institute, Ruhr University West, Germany
  • Theresa Kearney, Northern Ireland Environment Agency
  • Alice Wemaere, Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland)
  • Jane Watkins, Beta Technology, UK
  • Jennifer Brennan, Marie Curie National Contact Point, Ireland
  • Marcelo Morgado, ABES - Brazilian Association of Sanitation Engineering
  • Haiyan Pei, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, China
  • Peter Wolfmeyer, Zenit GmbH, Germany
  • Gerald Jones, Corinium Innovation Ltd, UK

To register for this conference and for further information please visit www.dcu.ie/atwarm.

 

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Register now! Water - the greatest global challenge
ATWARM conference - save the date!

‘Water: The Greatest Global Challenge’ is a networking event to discuss future collaborative innovations for our shared environment.

It will be hosted at The Helix at Dublin City University, on 14-16th May 2013.

Please visit www.atwarm.com/conference for further information and registration details. 

ATWARM (Advanced Technologies for Water Resource Management) represents a collection of industry-led research projects, addressing the innovation needs of organisations in the area of water.

This conference will highlight innovations in water quality management – novel treatment techniques, advanced monitoring tools – that have been developed and demonstrated by a team of Marie Curie research Fellows under the FP7 Initial Training Network project, ATWARM.

The conference will also include a full day Brokerage Event to manage dedicated business contacts during the conference and it will take place on Day 2, Wednesday 15th May from 2pm to 5pm. The Brokerage Event is hosted by Enterprise Europe Network Ireland in co-operation with Enterprise Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland.

 

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ATWARM project participants plan for final year

Fellows at Networking meeting in Belfast November 2012
At the recent ATWARM networking meeting all Fellows, Supervisors and the management team discussed progress to date and looked forward to the final year of the project. All Fellow presentations showed the tremendous progress that has been made in each project and demonstrated the promise that exists for new products, servcies and research opportunities as outcomes of the ATWARM ITN. The team discussed plans for the 2013 International conference and Summer School 3 in detail and these will be promoted over the coming months. Click here to access minutes and other contetn (some restrictions)

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ATWARM Network Meeting

The next ATWARM meeting will be on 13-14th November 2012 at Riddel Hall, Queen's University Belfast.

  • All Fellows will be required to present an oral update on their research, secondments, outreach activities and potential routes for technology transfer.
  • The management team will provide an update on progress to EC deliverables, including the International Conference, scheduled for May 2013.
  • All Fellows will also prepare a poster summarising latest research developments.

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Summer School 2; a Titanic success!

  
Our second ATWARM project summer school was held in Belfast during the week beginning 23rd July. It began with 2 (rainy) days of highly interactive content as part of the UK GRAD school programme. Wednesday saw the group convene to the birthplace of the Titanic for a histroy lesson on Belfast's historic legacy of ship-building, milling and linen-making. There then follow a trip to AFBI and an insight into Northern Ireland's agricultural sector and the pressures this places on water resources. Thursday began with a trip to the Belfast industrial manufacturing site of the world's third largest aircraft manufacturer, Bombardier Aerospace. This was follow by a series of talks on technology application and groundwater contamination before the group travel to NI Water's impressive Training and Development Centre at Antrim. Friday gave a chance to reflect on individual projects and learn how to best commercialise and publicise the research outputs. Finally, the group travelled to the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre at Oxford Island to gain a greater understanding of Northern Irelands largest lake and the challenges for NIEA and River's Agency to protect our inland waterways. Thanks to all who participated. Presentations (private) and pictures are available.

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Summer School 2 to be held in Belfast 23-27 July

The second ATWARM Summer School will be held from 23rd-27th July in Belfast. This intensive 5 day programme ensures that all fellows get out of the lab and experience real-world water challenges for industry and society. The theme for this year's event in small scale and sustainable wastewater treatment. The first two days will include a tailor made adaptation of the prestigious UK GRAD programme which will focus on researching, team-working and communication skills key to the environmental sector.

 

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Network meeting at Cranfield, 1st May

A productive ATWARM Network Meeting was held  in Cranfield on 1st May 2012. Fellows gave detailed updates on the scientific progress of their project, described the dissemination/outreach activities that they have been involved in and detailed the secondments that they had planned or performed to date. The group saw the excellent wastewater pilot plant facility and were given an introduction to each of the research projects being performed there. Thanks to Dr. Raffaella Villa and her team at Cranfield School of Applied Sciences for their warm welcome and hospitality. Extra credit to fellows Francesco and Yolanda for looking after the group! The group will meet up together soon; Summer School 2 will be held in Belfast during the week beginning 23rd July.

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ATWARM/QUESTOR meeting May 2012: Cranfield University

The next ATWARM/QUESTOR meeting will be held at Cranfield University, UK on 1st and 2nd May 2012. The Tuesday will be dedicated to ATWARMactivities and run concurrently with some QUESTOR meeting content. Travel details, presentation instructions and draft agendas have been circulated by email.

 

 

Fruitful Mid-Term Review Meeting

The ATWARM consortium held a successful Mid-Term Review meeting in Belfast on 1st December 2011. All Fellows gave a presentation on their background and an update on their project progress. These presentations and the minutes from the Superviosory Board and Student Council meetings will soon be available for download from this web-site. Thanks to all participants and the EC Project Officer for a very useful and productive meeting.

The next ATWARM meeting will be held at Cranfield University, UK on the 1st-2nd May 2012 and Summer School 2 is already in planning for 23rd-27th July 2012 in Belfast.

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Next Meeting, Belfast, 29th Nov - 1st Dec 2011

The next QUESTOR and ATWARM meeting is planned for 29th November to 1st December 2011. All ATWARM Fellows will be expected to attend the evening meal on 29th. The 30th will be the main QUESTOR meeting presentations during which  two of the Fellows will be asked to present to the QUESTOR Centre industrial members. On the 1st December we will be joined by the EC project officer to conduct the project mid-term review. Further details will be circulated closer to the date.

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Summer School 1 (July 2011)


The first Summer School of the ATWARM Project was held at the University of Duisburg-Essen (Essen Campus) from 19th-22nd July 2011 . This was a 4 day program of presentations, site-visits and workshops. All ATWARM Fellows were present and participated in a packed agenda including trips to the Emscher Genossenschaft wastewater plants at Bottrop and Dinslaken, Schwerte (Ruhrverband), the water extraction and drinking water supply plant at Wasserwerk Hengsen, Schwerte-Geiseke plus the Ruhr river quality monitoring station in Hattingen. Water certainly was the recurrent theme with the attendees caught in some heavy rainfall! However, the Summer School was enjoyed by all and we wish to thank Michael, Stephan, Andy, Thorsten and the excellent team at IWW and UDE plus each of the fantastic speakers for their patience in dealing with our questions and for facilitating an excellent trip! Click here for more images.

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Second ATWARM updating meeting

Some of the ATWARM meeting attendees

Poster presentations during the ATWARM meeting 12th May 2011
The second ATWARM updating meeting was held in Germany on 12th May 2011. Proceedings, presentations and photos will shortly be available.

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Next ATWARM Meeting, 12th May

The next ATWARM project meeting will be held on Thursday the 12th May 2011 at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. We look forward to seeing all ATWARM Fellows and main supervisors there. The ATWARM meeting will be preceeded on the 10th and 11th May by the main QUESTOR meeting. This will be an excellent opportunity for the ATWARM Fellows to meet with industrial representatives and to discuss their projects. Further details including travel and accomodation information will be available soon.

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ATWARM Bi-Annual Meeting 18th November 2010

Presentations during the Meeting on 18th November 2010

The Annual ATWARM Meeting was held on 18th November 2010 and was hosted by QUESTOR in Queen's University Belfast, UK. Most of the Fellows, Supervisors and project participants were in attendance.  The first meetings of the Supervisory Board and Student Research Council were held.

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ATWARM Kick-off Meeting, 11th May 2010, Belfast

The Kick-off Meeting (KoM) was hosted by project coordinator, QUB, on 11th May 2010.

Despite the volcanic ash cloud threatening to make a come-back, all 7 Partners were represented at the meeting. The KoM was scheduled to coincide with the bi-annual QUESTOR meeting, enabling a number of the QUESTOR members - associated partners in the ATWARM Network - to take the opportunity to attend and hear more about the ATWARM project and its objectives. The 16 research projects that will be completed within ATWARM were presented by the project supervisors and discussed during a dynamic poster session. By the next Network meeting - in 6 months time (Nov10) - the majority of researchers will have been appointed and will have started work on their projects.

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Agenda for Mid Term Review Meeting 1st December

The EC project officer will join with all partners in Belfast on 1st December for the Mid-Term Review Meeting. Looking forward to seeing you all there. Click for agenda.

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ATWARM final meeting

The final ATWARM meeting will be hosted at AFBI Hillsborogh on 12-13th November 2013.

This offers an opporunity to hear from the ATWARM fellows about their achievements during their fellowship with the project and the partner organisations.

Looking forward to seeing the group again in N Ireland.

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