AQUASYN - University Enterprise Collaboration in the field of the Bottled Water
Action Synergy promoted and coordinated AQUASYN, a project within the framework of the Erasmus multilateral projects. The project aimed 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 were both online (e-learning with many multimedia elements) and offline (seminars and study visits)) the universities transferred and valorized the expertise that they have gained through their research activities.
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 were developed in all the partners' languages) were based on extensive research on the needs of the enterprises of the sector which included desk research, field research (interviews based on semi-structured questionnaires) and laboratory in which the partners collected laboratory results for the quality of the stored water in the various partner countries.
The project aimed to promote the transfer of innovation from the universities to the enterprises also by the development of an online portal which was used for publication by the universities of all the research results in the sector.
The enterprises were 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 included 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 of the project was the significant increase of the knowledge and skills of the staff of the enterprises in the sector, fact which increased the quality of the drinking water that they are providing.