Akvaplan-niva takes part in HORIZON Europe project CLEAR-WATER

The CLEAR-WATER consortium came together in Brussels on 22 and 23 September 2026 for the project’s official kick-off meeting. Hosted at the SINTEF offices and chaired by project coordinator Sophie Jensen of project leader MATIS, the two-day meeting marked the start of four years of collaboration on aquatic litter monitoring and assessment.

The meeting brought together project partners, representatives of the European Research Executive Agency and members of the External Advisory Group to establish a shared understanding of CLEAR-WATER’s objectives, responsibilities and expected contribution to European aquatic litter monitoring. Akvaplan-niva participates in CLEAR-WATER with Claudia Halsband, Morten Thorstensen and Debanshu Ratha.

Claudia Halsband and Debanshu Ratha from Akvaplan-niva attending CLEAR-WATER kick off meeting in Brussels.

Partners introduced their organisations and roles before discussing the project’s management structure, governance and scientific direction. Sessions led by MATIS and Universität Bayreuth covered coordination, decision-making, quality management, reporting and collaboration across the nine work packages.

Attention then turned to the project’s core activities. Work package leaders presented plans to review current monitoring programmes, advance methods and technologies from macro litter to nanoplastics, examine governance barriers, involve stakeholders through Transformation Labs and translate results into practical guidance and policy-ready resources. To go beyond the current state of the art in litter monitoring, the project will integrate established methods with new approaches to be developed by CLEAR-WATER. "One of the outputs will be LITTERTREE, a visual roadmap that provides users with structured guidance on harmonized and cost-effective monitoring methods in a given aquatic environment such as rivers, groundwater, or coastal waters, and identifies the 'lowest common denominator' that should be monitored in each litter size class. The results, including optimal workflows and adaptable decision trees, will feed into CLEARMAP, a framework co-designed with stakeholders to achieve harmonised pan-European strategies." explains Claudia Halsband.

In practical terms, CLEAR-WATER will test and connect methods, technologies and models across seabeds, rivers, lakes, coastlines and the land-to-sea continuum in five case studies. One of these case studies will be led by Morten Thorstensen, looking at non-invasive imaging techniques for monitoring seafloor litter in the North Atlantic with underwater cameras mounted on ROVs or AUVs. The processing of resulting video footage and still images will be supported by Debanshu Ratha to develop automated litter classifications in collaboration with colleagues in Italy and Greece, who will conduct a sister-case in the Mediterranean. "We are aiming to harmonize image-based seafloor litter monitoring regardless which ocean basin the data come from or exactly which equipment is used to collect the images" says Morten Thorstensen.

Members of the External Advisory Group provided initial feedback, helping the consortium consider how its work can respond to wider scientific, monitoring and policy needs. A dedicated session introduced the serious-game concept that will be developed later in the project to explore real-world monitoring and governance choices with policymakers, managers, public authorities and other stakeholders. The consortium also held its first General Assembly and worked in smaller groups to define immediate priorities, responsibilities and next steps.

With the kick-off complete, CLEAR-WATER now begins its work to improve the reliability and comparability of aquatic litter data across Europe. The project will develop and validate methods from macro litter to microplastics and nanoplastics, integrate monitoring with modelling and ecological risk assessment, and work with stakeholders to support lasting uptake in national and regional monitoring intitiatives.

Modified version of news item from https://clear-water-project.eu/clear-water-partners-meet-in-brussels-for-the-project-kick-off/

EU CLEAR-WATER project page: CLEAR-WATER | Harmonising Aquatic Litter Monitoring and Assessment Across EU Waters – CLEAR-WATER is co-designing harmonised, cost-effective approaches for monitoring aquatic litter across freshwater, coastal and marine environments — from source to sea and from macro litter to nanoplastics.