The "Water-Oriented Living Labs to Enable Green Transformation in the Digital Age" event is organised by Water Europe as Partner Event of the EU Green Week 2022, and will be held online via Zoom in English language on June 1st 2022.

This event aims to highlight the role of Water-Oriented Living Labs (WOLLs) for the Green and Digital Transformation of Europe. This online workshop will take around two hours and will consist of various presentations, a case study as well as a panel discussion.

The expected number of participants is between 100-150 with the targeted audience the targets the full range of actors of the water value chain, tagged an integrated in the four categories of players of the "quadruple helix": R&I, Business, Public Authorities and Citizens

The event intends also to inform, raise awareness, and discuss on WOLLs as relevant (regional) eco-systems that enhance for co-creation, testing, and evaluation of innovations in representative real-life environments, aiming at achieving a Water-Smart Society[1]​.

A Water-Smart Society is a significant force towards the Green and Digital Transformation in EU. Creating a Water-Smart Society is an enormous task, considering the major societal changes in response to climate change where water security is an essential goal for all. The pursuit of a circular economy and the digital transition are also in the same picture of the European project of the Green Deal where the Water-Smart Society becomes a main leverage for inclusion and sustainability.

The twin effort to achieve a green and digital Europe requires systemic innovation approach to achieve its goals, which involves direct participation of all stakeholders in a product, service, or application development process. In this case, the WOLLs can generate critical sets of scalable innovations to be collaboratively validated in multi-contextual, empirical real-world environments in EU and beyond.

[1]​ A Water-Smart Society is a society in which the true value of water is recognised and realised, all available water sources are managed in such a way that water scarcity and pollution of water resources are avoided, water and resource loops are largely closed to foster a circular economy and optimal resource efficiency, the water system is resilient against the impact of climate change events, and all relevant stakeholders are involved in the governance of our water system.

During the event the following topics will be discussed:

• How WOLLs can support Systemic Water management to boost Green and Digital Transformation
• New sustainable governance and business model for the Green and Digital Transformation offered by the Water-Oriented Living Labs approach.
• Citizen engagement and mobilisation through WOLLs for Green and Digital Transformation
• A Water-Smart Society as an enabler of the Green Deal through WOLLs: the cultural change.