H2020 RI - HYDRALAB-PLUS

Project Description

HYDRALAB is an advanced community that specializes in experimental hydraulic research. We would like to call our project, for which we have written this proposal, HYDRALAB+ (pronunciation: hydralab plus) because we will go beyond what we have achieved in our previous integrated activities and we will extend our reach outside the existing community. For our proposal, we have selected the best performing major and unique hydraulic experimental infrastructures and two new facilities, that were recently purpose-built, to meet the demand from the European hydraulic research community and industry. Transnational Access activities have been defined in ten work packages to allow access to these facilities in two large calls for proposals. Gatherings of a User Selection Panel, consisting of independent experts, will be organized for these calls to select the proposals with the highest scientific merit to be awarded access. To ensure that access supports the scope of the work programme our calls will be themed to address climate change adaptation and they will integrate with our Joint Research Activities. Our Joint Research Activities have been developed in three coherent work packages that will improve the capability of experimental hydraulic facilities to evaluate adaptations to climate change, and significantly improve data flux within and outside our community in-line with the latest EC-regulations and the latest technology. In our Networking Activities we will engage with our stakeholders. Our main stakeholder is the larger experimental hydraulic research community beyond the limits of the HYDRALAB network. Significant effort will be devoted to working with them in one of the themed workshops. Another themed workshop will focus on the interaction between the facilities and industry. Together with a separate work package on Innovation, the workshop will lead to stronger relations between industry and experimental hydraulic research and increased synergy and spin-off. Specific attention will be devoted the next generation hydraulic researchers. We have excellent experience with Next Generation Researcher Workshops, but in HYDRALAB+, we will improve their effectiveness and use modern technology such as webinars and make increased use of social media to share more information with a larger group of researchers. We will also establish a scheme for internships to share experiences among a wider group of new researchers.