European Water Utility Management: promoting innovation within the water industry and spreading knowledge on relevant and cutting edge water utility issues

Unipi Team Leader: Giulia Romano, Department of Economics and Management

Water is essential for life and is one of the main environmental topics of the European Union (EU) policy. In the light of the current EU challenges on resource efficiency and sustainable development and considering that public participation is a key principle of the Water Framework Directive, the EWUM Module aims at spreading knowledge on relevant and cutting edge water utility issues and promoting innovation within the water industry. The teaching programme will be articulated into 5 units held by 4 scholars with multi-disciplinary backgrounds in management, economics, public law and engineering.Participants to the EWUM will develop skills and knowledge base of:- The water industry in Europe: facts, figures and challenges- European legislation on water issues, its evolution in the last twenty years and future developments- European water utility ownership and board composition and their impacts on strategies and performances- The most used and innovative methodologies to measure and compare performances of water utilities considering economic, social and environmental results- Sustainable water management and conservation policies in Europe. Teaching will be complemented with research activities on European water industry developed with a multidisciplinary focus.The goals of the EWUM Module are manifold: create interest in the EU water related issues, foster the introduction of EU angle into mainly non EU related studies, foster the publication and dissemination of the results of academic research and promote research and teaching experience for young researcher in EU studies.The EWUM results will be verified through the following outputs:- at least 200 participants per year to the teaching programme- Participation of different target groups: students, water utility professionals and managers, policy makers, civil servants, interested citizens- presentations in conferences and submission in peer-reviewed journals of at least 3 research papers.

Start date: 01-09-2014

End date: 31-08-2017 

EU Grant: 30.000 €