EMPRESA MUNICIPAL DE ABASTECIMIENTO Y SANEAMIENTO DE GRANADA SA

Their core work

EMASAGRA is the municipal water supply and sanitation operator for Granada, Spain, responsible for delivering clean drinking water and managing wastewater for the city and its metropolitan area. In EU research consortia, they participate as an operational end-user and real-world pilot site — contributing live infrastructure, operational data, and frontline practitioner knowledge to water security and emergency response projects. Their core value is not scientific output but something harder to find: the perspective of the people who actually run a city's water network when it comes under attack or contamination. They bridge the gap between laboratory research and the daily operational realities of a critical utility under threat.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

EMASAGRA entered H2020 through the cybersecurity angle: STOP-IT (2017) focused on protecting water infrastructure from cyber-physical attacks, a direct concern for any critical utility operator managing networked SCADA systems. By 2020, their second engagement shifted to biological threats — PathoCERT addressed pathogen contamination, emergency response protocols, and fault diagnosis, expanding the threat model well beyond digital intrusion. With only two projects over a seven-year window, the evolution is limited in volume but consistent in direction: from infrastructure protection toward full-spectrum crisis response, covering both man-made and natural threats to water safety.

EMASAGRA is positioning itself as a real-world testing ground for water threat detection and response technologies — if this continues, they are a natural fit for any project needing a live utility site to validate monitoring, contamination, or crisis management systems.

How they like to work

EMASAGRA never coordinates projects — they join as a participant or third party, which is the typical and appropriate mode for an operational utility in a research consortium. Their contribution is infrastructure access, operational data, and end-user feedback rather than scientific deliverables. Both projects placed them inside large, multi-partner European consortia, suggesting they are experienced at working within complex collaborative structures without taking on administrative or coordination burdens.

Despite only two projects, EMASAGRA has accumulated 51 unique consortium partners across 13 countries — a reflection of the large, multi-partner security consortia they joined rather than an independent networking effort. Their connections span European water sector researchers, technology developers, and emergency response agencies.

What sets them apart

EMASAGRA is a rare asset in EU water security consortia: an actual municipal water operator willing to serve as a live pilot site and end-user validator, rather than a research body theorizing about infrastructure threats. For any project that needs real operational water system data, hands-on testing environments, or practitioner-level feedback on detection and response protocols, a working utility is genuinely hard to substitute with a lab simulation. Their location in Granada also offers access to a semi-arid Mediterranean water stress context that is growing in relevance to EU climate adaptation and water scarcity research.

Highlights from their portfolio

• STOP-IT
  Their only funded H2020 role (EUR 42,499) and their entry into EU research, this project tackled cyber-physical attack protection for water infrastructure — one of the most strategically sensitive areas in critical infrastructure security.
• PathoCERT
  Their third-party role in this pathogen contamination emergency response project shows their utility extending beyond cybersecurity into biological threat preparedness, broadening their research profile across the full spectrum of water security threats.