a project to join

The Romanian Water Association (ARA – Asociația Română a Apei) is the national professional association of the Romanian water and wastewater sector. Its members are regional water utilities, along with equipment suppliers, consultants and research institutions. ARA connects research consortia with real operational environments. It offers access to member utilities as pilot and validation sites: drinking water treatment and distribution networks, wastewater treatment plants, and SCADA/IoT-enabled assets. It can contribute operational data and end-user requirements.

ARA brings expertise in:

utility performance benchmarking (regulated indicators)
implementation of EU water legislation (WFD, recast UWWTD 2024/3019 including energy neutrality, DWD)
critical-entity resilience and NIS2 cybersecurity for water operators
drought and climate-risk management (Romania faced a severe hydrological drought in 2026)

ARA can lead use-case definition, stakeholder engagement, validation with operators, dissemination to the national water sector, and policy uptake through its links with national regulators and authorities.

Topic 1. Integrated Monitoring and Assessment for Sustainable Water Management
Topic 3. Smart, Secure and Adaptive Water Infrastructures for Sustainable Water Management

Project description
ARA is looking to join a transnational consortium as a use-case provider and end-user partner. We can bring real-world use cases from Romanian water utilities, including:

integrated network and treatment-plant monitoring
leakage and non-revenue water reduction
predictive maintenance
water-energy optimisation toward energy neutrality
drought and water-scarcity resilience
digital and cyber resilience of critical water infrastructure

We are particularly interested in projects that need operational pilot sites, utility data and validation by end users in a Central and Eastern European context, ensuring transferability beyond Western European settings. We are open to research organisations, technology developers and coordinators seeking a utility-sector partner.

water utilities, use cases, smart water networks, leakage detection, water-energy nexus, energy neutrality, drought resilience, critical infrastructure, nis2, cybersecurity

Open to bilateral meetings and online calls with prospective coordinators and partners.