Sustainable Water Engineering and Management: Excellence in education and training for next-generation of experts in sustainable urban wastewater treatment and management

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Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) face significant environmental challenges, particularly in complying with evolving regulatory standards through advanced treatment strategies. The new EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive 2024 emphasizes improving process monitoring, enhancing pollutant removal, and promoting the safe reuse of treated wastewater. Achieving carbon-neutral wastewater treatment is another critical goal, requiring strategies to optimize energy and chemical consumption, recover valuable resources, and implement carbon capture and utilization to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this context, transitioning from traditional WWTPs to resource recovery facilities is a key emerging objective. Meeting the multiple, sometimes competing objectives of high contaminant removal, sustainability, carbon neutrality, and resource recovery requires sustainable energy and chemical strategies, advanced treatment technologies, and sophisticated tools for process monitoring, modelling, and control. Additionally, the development of skilled professionals in this field – capable of designing, optimizing, and operating innovative technologies, approaches, and tools –is essential. Recognizing the current shortage of expertise in advanced and sustainable wastewater treatment, the WATER4FUTURE project aims to design an innovative, international Joint Master’s Programme in ‘Sustainable Water Engineering and Management’. This Programme will foster expertise in advanced, sustainable, carbon-neutral, and circular economy-based wastewater treatment. It will prepare society for climate-resilient, sustainable, and smart wastewater management infrastructure – key assets for advancing sustainable development. The Programme will equip the next generation of engineers with multidisciplinary expertise and a forward-thinking vision of technologies and processes, driven the transition to more sustainable wastewater management systems within and beyond the European Union.