Co-UDlabs final InfoDay

As Co-UDlabs is coming to an end in April 2025, partners organised a public final event to celebrate the conclusion of its activities and its early and consolidated results. The Co-UDlabs InfoDay was open to the whole urban drainage and water management communities.

The InfoDay took place in March 18, 2025, in the premises of the Fundación Galicia-Europa in Brussels.

During the event, Co-UDlabs presented and discussed the main achievements and advances of four years of the project work. After a short overview of the project achievements, a round table was organised in which we presented the key policy recommendations related with project research and technology transfer, as CSO monitoring in the framework of the new Urban Waste Water Directive or the role of Large Research Infrastructures networks for a smart and sustainable urban drainage management from the perspective of EU institutions, water utilities and administrations, industry and researchers. Lastly, we discussed further EU-wide collaborations for the consolidation of an international network of Research Infrastructures in the field of Urban Drainage Systems.

Programme and presentations

  • 09:00-10:00 Reception of participants and welcoming coffee
  • 10:00-10:20 Institutional opening
    • Dr. Elena Garbarino, REA European Commission
    • José Anta, Co-UDlabs coordinator, University of Coruna
    • Ana Ramos, Fundacion Galicia-Europa
  • 10:20-10:40 Introduction: four years of Co-UDlabs, José Anta.
  • 10:40-11:40 Round Table: Co-UDlabs and translating science into policy and practice
    • Co-UDlabs’ Policy Briefs: key policy recommendations for the urban drainage community,- Simon Tait, University of Sheffield
    • Research Infrastructure networks and European urban water policy: the view from EU institutions – Trudy Higgins, Directorate General for Environment, European Commission
    • Research Infrastructures, community-building, and knowledge exchange: the view from water utilities, industry, and organisations – Arthur Guischet, European Water Association (EWA) and Thomas Brüggemann, IKT Institute of Underground Research
  • 11:40-12:30 Co-UDlabs’ legacy towards an international UD community
  • 12:30-13:30 Networking lunch
Download presentations

The InfoDay was a great networking and dissemination opportunity for establishing contact with former Co-UDlabs project users, stakeholders, regulators, and representatives of utilities and local governments — both based in Brussels or around EU institutions and from all over the continent.

Watch the Infoday