Focus on REXUS, one of the GoNexus sister projects
Collaboration is at the heart of every European Horizon 2020 project but it does not stop at the borders of a consortium of partners and can also take place between projects. The interview below shows that there are many opportunities for knowledge sharing, as told by Anna Osann and José González, the coordinators of REXUS project.
What is the aim of the REXUS project? Where are you now in the project?
REXUS aims to develop and validate knowledge and tools to facilitate the transition form “nexus thinking” to “nexus doing”. The project has started in May 2021 and will end in October 2024 (including a 6-months extension). The REXUS Observatory (covering tools and data for water and energy/carbon accounting and footprints, land-use suitability, climate projections and risk analysis) has been set up and implemented in all 5 pilot areas (Pinios in Greece, Lower Danube in Romania, Nima en Colombia, Isonzo/Soča in Italy/Slovenia, and peninsular Spain). The Learning and Action Alliances (LAA) have successfully involved many stakeholders in participatory workshops in all pilots. A framework and online tool for the selection of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) has been developed and is currently being implemented in pilots. The Participatory System Dynamics Modeling (PSDM) process has brought together all sectorial information into a common “nexus-thinking” framework and is currently exploring with stakeholders the ways to transition towards “nexus-doing” in each pilot case.
Why is collaboration between European projects in this field important? Are there any overlaps with the subject matter?
Collaboration with other nexus projects is essential for at least two reasons. Firstly, the 2-step “nexus transition” (from sector silos to “nexus thinking” and then to “nexus doing”) is a huge challenge for science, politics, and stakeholders. One project alone cannot achieve it. Secondly, there is some inevitable overlap between projects (all responding to the same call text), which can be turned into complementarity through collaboration. In the case of REXUS, we have been collaborating closely with our sister project LENSES (funded by PRIMA) since the beginning. So far, we have seen both projects supporting and potentiating each other, so that at the end, the outcome will be way more than the sum of results.
What collaborative activities between GoNexus and REXUS projects are envisaged in the coming months?
In REXUS, we are heading towards the second stakeholder workshop in the Júcar river basin, which is also a pilot in GoNexus. We are inviting GoNexus to present their project briefly at the workshop. We are also exploring how to complement each other in the PSDM domain (which each project addresses from a different angle).
