AQUASYN – University Enterprise Collaboration in the field of the Bottled Water
Action Synergy promoted and coordinated the project AQUASYN which was implemented in the framework of the Erasmus multilateral projects. The project aims to develop the knowledge and skills of the personnel of the bottled water enterprises through training sessions developed by the universities. Through these training sessions (which are both online (e-learning) and offline (seminars and study visits)) the universities have the chance to transfer and valorize the expertise that they have gained through their research activities.
The problem that the project decided to tackle is the following: While the enterprises that are working in the field of stored water are aware of the fact that stored or bottled water under some specific conditions (e.g. high temperature) may be dangerous for the human health, do not provide long-term solutions because of the knowledge gaps on how to tackle such incidents.
The training modules (which are available in all the partners’ languages) are based on extensive research on the needs of the enterprises of the sector which includes desk research, field research (interviews based on semi-structured questionnaires) and laboratory research in which the partners will collect laboratory results for the quality of the stored water in the various partner countries.
The project aims to promote the transfer of innovation from the universities to the enterprises also by the development of an online portal which will be used for publication by the universities of all the research results in the sector. The enterprises are able to see in the portal all the innovations available and communicate directly with the universities through the use of online collaborative tools.
The consortium includes 8 organizations from 6 countries (Greece, Cyprus, UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal) and all the key stakeholders in the sector (universities, enterprises, UETP, research organizations).
The impact envisaged by the project is the significant increase of the knowledge and skills of the staff of the enterprises in the sector, fact which will increase the quality of the drinking water that they are providing.
More information about the project you can find at the website of the project and at the facebook page.