You can now read the report from the SUGI Midterm Valorisation Event and explore what SUGI projects have been awarded “Take it Further Grants” to accelerate impact and outreach. The Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative (SUGI)/Food-Water-Energy Nexus is a call jointly established by the Belmont Forum and the Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe with support from the European Commission.
The SUGI-FWE Nexus Midterm Valorization Event, held 15- 16 June 2020, was an important bridging opportunity for projects, organizers, and funders from around the globe. The virtual event facilitated new connections between teams, provided a unique space to share best practices, and gave project members a chance to network with hosting institutions – all important drivers for project success and longevity. In addition to interventions from representatives of the European Union, JPI Urban Europe, and the Belmont Forum, smaller breakout sessions during the event allowed participants to explore some of the common challenges, and innovative solutions, within the projects to date. Additionally, project teams received valuable feedback on their impact from an expert evaluation committee, as well as information on additional funding opportunities through Future Earth’s PEGASuS grants to continue taking their projects further.
SUGI projects support collaboration that goes beyond individual national efforts and demonstrate sharing, operationalizing and transferring existing knowledge, resources, and research facilities to mutual benefit. All projects integrate across the natural sciences (including engineering), arts and humanities, and social sciences, and clearly engage stakeholders and demonstrate user needs relevant to the project goals, with research outputs that are targeted towards informed decision-making and identifying potential innovations.
Future Earth, with funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Science Program, is partnering with the Belmont Forum to make available a new grant opportunity to the existing research teams and new partners involved in SUGI. These new “take it further grants” focus on enhancing and accelerating the existing Belmont-funded projects as well as fostering new cross-project collaborations and facilitate the involvement of new partners. Nine proposals from eleven of the existing SUGI/Nexus Teams were received in mid-July 2020. Each proposal was reviewed by at least three anonymous reviewers and scored against the evaluation criteria given. The four awarded projects are:
– The Global Food Water Energy Nexus (GOFWEN) Project
Study countries: Brazil, South Africa, India, Madagascar.
– Building policy tools for water- and waste-based urban soil remediation
Study countries: Argentina, South Africa, UK.
– NexusFootprints – Combining Indicators for Urban Food-Water-Energy Nexus Comparison
Study countries: Jordan, India, Austria.
– Resource Recovery in the Food-Water-Energy Nexus – Assessing Point-source Recovery of Phosphorus in the Context of the Circular Economy
Study countries: USA, Sweden, UK, Australia.
>> Explore the awarded SUGI projects
All fifteen projects supported in SUGI have produced short videos on their results and impact so far. The videos are a quick introduction to the projects, and you get to meet some of the people behind the research. Alongside the videos, we launched SUGI CONNECT: a compilation of the project leaders and their partners across the globe sorted by countries and cities. Can you spot a future collaborator? Welcome to SUGI Connect!
>> Go to SUGI Connect
>> Watch the SUGI project videos
