On April 16, 2025, the OurMED project hosted the second workshop of the Living Lab in the Medjerda River Basin at the Tunis Grand Hôtel, as part of its ongoing work on water and ecosystems governance and socioeconomic assessment.

We are proud to announce that NEXTGEN4MED, an initiative born from the collaboration of three PRIMA-funded projects (OurMED, NATMed, and SALAM-MED), has been recently featured by PRIMA (Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area) on its official website.

In its article titled "Join NEXTGEN4MED – Empowering the Next Generation of Water Researchers for the Mediterranean", PRIMA emphasizes the importance of building a strong and connected community of young researchers dedicated to the sustainable management of water resources in the Mediterranean region.

The 2^nd  living lab meeting for the Agia demosite was held on Friday, March 14, 2025, at the Facilities of the Municipal Water Supply and Sewerage Enterprise of the Northern Axis of the Municipality of Platanias (D.E.Y.A.V.A.), a key water supply authority responsible for irrigation, drainage, and borehole management in the region. The focused workshop, organized by the TUC team, aimed to collect critical data on water consumption and obtain essential pumping information from the existing wells in the study area. Eight participants exchanged valuable insights on water infrastructure and resource distribution. The discussion revealed significant challenges including fragmented data among multiple agencies, complicating accurate groundwater modeling. Despite these difficulties, DEYABA experts expressed strong interest in collaborating on groundwater modeling, monitoring and analyzing the WEAP model results in the study area. They also welcomed support for drilling new wells, installing groundwater meters and strengthening cooperation. The meeting successfully fostered a spirit of collaboration, with both teams committing to data sharing and joint efforts to advance the objectives of the OurMED project for sustainable water resources management.

The wetlands of Oristanese, in Western Sardinia, are invaluable ecosystems, rich in ecological, social, cultural, and economic significance. However, these fragile areas face mounting challenges, primarily linked to water governance and climate pressures.

As part of the OurMED project’s “Acqùa” living lab, the roundtable discussion "The Communities of Water" recently took place in Arborea, bringing together fishermen, environmentalists, and tourism operators. The goal: to foster social learning, address urgent threats, and develop a shared vision for the future of these wetlands and the communities that depend on them.

The OurMED project is pleased to share an exciting PhD opportunity on Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) for mitigating Urban Heat Islands (UHIs). This three-year PhD will be hosted at the Hydrology, Meteorology and Complexity (HM&Co) laboratory at Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC) in France, with a secondment at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) in Spain.

On 7 February, the Portuguese Space Agency hosted the initiative  "Earth Observation for the Regions of Alentejo and Lisbon and Vale do Tejo – Earth Observation for Municipalities", at the University of Évora. The initiative explored how Earth Observation supports municipal management and resource planning.