Continuous hazardous water Pollutants sensing

The overall vision of the CoPs (Continuous hazardous water Pollutants sensing) project is to mature, pilot, scale-up and commercialise our game-changing water pollutant sensor platform, thus safeguarding EU drinking water quality. Pesticide and nitrate pollution in fresh waters pose a significant risk to public health and the environment. Exposure to pesticides can lead to several cancer types or Parkinson's disease, while nitrate can result in "Blue Baby Syndrome" and cause eutrophication. According to latest estimates, getting sick from drinking tap water in Europe had a societal cost of €220 million. Meanwhile, inefficient water monitoring based on sampling and lab analyses does not provide early alerts. Water suppliers need to meet the EU monitoring requirements and react instantly with contamination treatment protocols, protect water supplies and avoid economic losses through shutdowns. Our innovative solution rapidly detects specific water pollutants and transmit real-time data on contaminant levels and movements in natural water systems before they could reach water infrastructures and the consumer. It saves both time and costs (by at least 40%), it vastly improves data quality and quantity, and it provides a data analysis and hazardous pollutants alert service to monitoring agencies. The aim of the envisaged project is to move our current prototype technology to full commercialisation onto the global markets. The CoPS technology has a major market potential compared to current state-of-the-art technology. To increase our commercial success and impact, we have created a Strategic Business Plan (SBP) as a detailed roadmap, describing all necessary activities we need to undertake to ensure a successful market introduction. Now we seek to develop our Commercialisation Plan, which will form an important part of the final Business Innovation Plan to be created in this Phase 2 project.