EurAqua is the European Network of Freshwater Research Organisations.The aim of EurAqua is to contribute substantially to the development of European freshwater science and its dissemination on a European scale, thus having a significant input on the development of the scientific basis of European water management.  

PEER — EurAqua collaboration
The Partnership for European Environmental Research (PEER) and Euraqua have several fields of interest in common. There also are close institutional links between the two networks: five of the seven PEER members are also member of EurAqua.

PEER and EurAqua decided to intensify their collaboration in order to further benefit from the potential synergies and complementarities. This is essential especially for the relations with the European Commission, DG Research, DG Environment, JRC, EEA and other international bodies in the field of Environment. This was formalized in a Letter of Intent in which they agreed to:

• Share expertise and resources in cooperative research and development activities and their applications, as well as in prospective activities and scientific brainstorming;
• Participate in knowledge transfer through cooperative demonstration projects, short courses and symposia;
• Encourage the exchange of research personnel between their institutes;
• Report on the collaborative research in the manner agreed for each specific project.

The collaboration is coordinated by a Coordination Committee consisting of both chairs and secretaries and up to two selected experts from each network. Currently the joint activities are focused on:

• The lobby towards the EC in the preparation of FP8;
• The follow-up of the conclusions of a workshop on Ecotoxicology hosted by Cemagref in November 2010;
• The preparation of a pesticides conference in 2011.

Contacts
Marc Babut, Euraqua secretary, euraqua@cemagref.fr
Jacques Jansen, PEER secretary, secretary@peer.eu

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