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GoNEXUS kicks off!

The GoNEXUS project kicked off on 7-8 October 2021 at the Polytechnical University in Valencia (Spain) and online. The two-day hybrid meeting was packed with presentations and collaborative brainstorming sessions, which built up momentum for the project.

The first day began with a presentation of the project officers and each of the partners. Then we jumped into presentations from each of the eight case studies:

These presentations detailed the expected inputs and outputs, which form the research basis for the rest of the project.

A discussion of the individual work packages followed. Work package leaders presented the goals and ambitions of each of their tasks and deliverables, paying careful attention to the overlaps and connections between work packages and how they should be addressed. The WP3 team, for example, presented each case study. They outlined some of the challenges for each location, such as the increase in energy and sectoral climate change for the WEFE nexus. The WP3 (on global and continental-scale models) and WP2 (scenarios) also aligned on which type of climate-forcing and socio-economic data needs to be delivered after year 1.

To conclude the first day, we discussed the nexus dialogues. The nexus dialogues are a series of workshops with stakeholders to provide feedback throughout the research process. The audience who will be consulted includes industry experts, scientists, municipal actors, and other stakeholders. We also held a brainstorming session on how the nexus dialogues will collaborate with the other work packages as well as which deliverables are associated with the nexus dialogues.

The second day of the kick-off began with an in-depth discussion of the data collection, input harmonisation and water, energy, food, ecosystem (WEFE) model interconnection. To facilitate the future scenarios within the project, WEFE models will be used to project which outcomes could be possible within these regions in 5 years. For this to be successful, data must be harmonised, and the appropriate models must be used in the correct way.

As this project deals with large data sets, both from the case studies and within the models, managing data effectively and ethically is important. Hector Macian-Sorribes’s presention of the data management plan showcased how the project will handle this. The consortium then turned its focus to the impact of the results and which KPIs would govern the measurement of success for the project. The afternoon saw a presentation of the development of the communication and dissemination plan.