The first in-person Management Committee meeting for the COST Action CA21112 OFF-SOURCE – “Offshore freshened groundwater: An unconventional water resource in coastal regions?” took place on 1 March at the University of Malta Valletta Campus.
A COST Action is an interdisciplinary research network that brings researchers and innovators together to investigate a topic of their choice for 4 years. The OFF-SOURCE COST Action was officially launched on 9 September 2022. This COST Action is chaired by Prof. Aaron Micallef from the Marine Geology and Seafloor Surveying within the Department of Geosciences of University of Malta (UM) and Co-Chaired by Prof. Claudia Bertoni from University of Oxford. Working Group Leader Dr Ariel Thomas, also from the Marine Geology and Seafloor Surveying group at UM, and Ms Hiba Wazaz, Project Manager of the COST Action, participated in the 2-day meeting.
OFF-SOURCE COST Action aims at creating a new scientific network that will address if and how offshore freshened groundwater (OFG) can be used as an unconventional source of potable water in coastal regions. It aims to address questions such as “Where is OFG found in waters of COST Member Countries and in which volumes?”, “What are the most appropriate approaches to detect and characterise OFG systems?”, “What is the most cost-effective strategy to utilise OFG in coastal regions?”, and “What are the environmental and legal challenges to sustainable OFG use?”.
The agenda of the meeting in Valletta was to develop and implement an effective dissemination campaign, and encourage communication and collaboration between researchers, professionals, and other regional water resource stakeholders.
It was designed to promote the exchange of ideas, capabilities, and experiences on the latest developments in offshore freshened groundwater research by involving Young Researchers and Innovators and experienced researchers from across Europe and beyond. The gathering encouraged interdisciplinary knowledge exchange between academia, industry, policy makers and regulators. It was attended by 38 members coming from 22 different countries in Europe and beyond.
On March, 2, The Action Members met again to further develop the strategy for the Working Group 1 (WG1), which will tackle the assessment of OFG and will compile a new, open-access, comprehensive database of known OFG bodies in European waters and beyond.
The group also discussed the workplan for the Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM) Grantees who will work on the WG1 tasks. The STSM Grant helps researchers to make exchange visits to a Host Institution located in another country in order to strengthen collaboration among researchers, improve knowledge and skills of individuals, and lead specific tasks related to the Action.
The first call was opened in January 2023, and future calls will be advertised on the Action’s website.
