The beginning of an engaging journey for the TUBERS project consortium commenced and was sealed with a kick-off meeting! On October 5th 2022, representatives from all partners (DEMCON, TWI Hellas, Alsymex, Bendabl, University of Essex, Brabant Water, Evides, Vitens ) came together to lay the groundwork and find out how to prevent the water leaks that trouble the European water distribution system at the end of the four-year Horizon Europe project.

On that day, partner organisations presented their previous and current research and business endeavours while highlighting their technological strengths that will lead to the project’s completion. As expected, there was also an extensive discussion about future research developments, essential tasks and milestones. Overall, the inaugural meeting was ideal for the consortium members to exchange opinions on technical and non-technical matters and set a common course of action to achieve optimal results.

On day two, the TUBERS partners had the opportunity to visit the University of Twente (UT) and KWR Water Research Institute . The tour included a walk through the university’s different departments, such as robotics, drones and 3D printers. Additionally, part of it was also a demonstration of developed technologies and results of previous Demcon and UT projects. Later, at KWR, the partners visited Nieuwegein to see a Dutch water infrastructure set up years ago.

They were also given a tour around the KWR premises, focusing on the difficulties/problems of a ‘typical’ Dutch water infrastructure. This led to important questions and fruitful discussions. The tour concluded with a short KWR presentation, sharing information about various water pipe leakages, detection methods and their repair test results.