FUNDACIO INSTITUT CATALA DE RECERCA DE L'AIGUA

Their core work

ICRA is a Catalan water research institute specializing in advanced water treatment, wastewater reuse, and the removal of emerging contaminants from aquatic environments. They develop electrochemical, biological, and oxidation-based treatment technologies and apply them to real urban water systems. Their work spans from lab-scale nanomaterial-based reactors to city-level smart water management and nature-based solutions. Increasingly, they also address climate change impacts on freshwater ecosystems, including biodiversity loss in drying river networks and water quality forecasting under new climate scenarios.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015–2018), ICRA focused squarely on treatment technology development — electrochemical reactors, advanced oxidation processes, nanomaterial-based disinfection, and analytical methods for detecting contaminants. From 2019 onward, a clear pivot emerges toward systems-level thinking: urban resilience, nature-based solutions, climate change adaptation, freshwater ecosystem restoration, and circular economy approaches to water. The shift is from "how do we clean water better?" to "how do we manage water systems in a changing climate?"

ICRA is moving from lab-scale treatment innovation toward climate adaptation and ecosystem-scale water management — expect future work at the intersection of nature-based solutions, predictive modeling, and circular water economies.

How they like to work

ICRA operates as a confident research leader: they coordinated 9 of 21 projects (43%), often in MSCA fellowships where they host individual researchers, but also in larger Innovation Actions. They work across a wide network of 264 unique partners in 39 countries, suggesting they are a sought-after collaborator rather than locked into a small circle. Their balanced mix of coordinator and participant roles indicates an organization comfortable both leading and contributing specialist expertise within large consortia.

With 264 unique consortium partners across 39 countries, ICRA has one of the broader collaboration networks for an institute of its size. Their reach is distinctly pan-European with Mediterranean emphasis, consistent with their focus on water scarcity and reuse challenges most acute in southern Europe.

What sets them apart

ICRA bridges the gap between deep chemistry-level water treatment research and city-scale water system management — a rare combination. Most water institutes specialize in either lab science or infrastructure engineering, but ICRA credibly operates across both, from designing graphene-oxide electrodes to deploying smart urban drainage observatories. Their Mediterranean location gives them direct access to water scarcity and reuse challenges that are becoming Europe-wide concerns under climate change, making them an increasingly relevant partner for any consortium addressing water resilience.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ELECTRON4WATER
  Largest single grant (EUR 1.49M) and coordinated by ICRA — developed next-generation 3D nanoelectrochemical water treatment systems using reduced graphene oxide.
• NOWELTIES
  Joint PhD laboratory coordinated by ICRA (EUR 753K MSCA-ITN) training researchers across the full spectrum of water treatment: biological, oxidation, nanomaterials, and hybrid systems.
• inventWater
  Represents ICRA's strategic pivot — developing forecasting tools to adapt water quality management to climate change, linking their treatment expertise to predictive environmental science.