RETRO-RO
Preliminary Work Package Overview and Proposed Polistudium Participation
External working draft for consortium discussion
This note provides a concise overview of the nine preliminary work packages and outlines a realistic but ambitious participation model for Polistudium, Luca Giacomelli, Roberto Eggenhoffner.
1. Preliminary overview of the nine work packages
WP1 - Project management, quality assurance, ethics and compliance. Overall coordination, internal quality control, risk monitoring, reporting discipline, ethics management and security-related compliance.
WP2 - Baselines, requirements and co-creation. Baseline assessment, needs analysis, user requirements, co-creation processes, pilot-facing protocols and KPI baselines.
WP3 - Retrofit treatment module design and engineering. Technical development of the RO-centred retrofit module, including monitoring architecture, operational logic and treatment integration.
WP4 - Nature-based Solutions integration and monitoring. Design and assessment of NbS interventions, including hydraulic buffering, pollution attenuation, biodiversity co-benefits and carbon-related effects.
WP5 - Digital twin, AI-assisted decision support and Earth observation inputs. Development of predictive digital capabilities, EO-informed indicators and operational playbooks to support resilient water infrastructure management.
WP6 - Secure data-sharing and interdependency mapping. Frameworks for trusted collaboration, secure data exchange and mapping of interdependencies with other critical infrastructures.
WP7 - Cyber-physical security, continuity planning and drills. Preparedness procedures, resilience exercises, safe-fallback practices and continuity planning under malicious or disruptive events.
WP8 - Pilots, stress-test ladder and validation. Pilot implementation, harmonised validation, evidence packages, KPI reporting and cross-pilot learning under realistic operating conditions.
WP9 - Replication, good-practice guidance, exploitation and communication. Scientific dissemination, stakeholder communication, training, replication assets, good-practice guidance and long-term uptake support.
2. Proposed participation and involvement model
A credible positioning for Polistudium is to combine leadership in two work packages with substantial, visible contributions across the wider action. The preferred model is leadership in WP2 and WP9, a major implementation role in WP8, a strong supporting role in WP5, and targeted contributions across the remaining work packages.
WP1 - Supporting contribution. Contribution to quality review procedures, ethics-aware stakeholder processes, interview and survey governance, and selected reporting support.
WP2 - Leadership or co-leadership candidate. This is the strongest natural fit for Polistudium. The organisation can lead requirements gathering, stakeholder mapping, Delphi and NGT processes, qualitative and quantitative research, protocol framing and evidence-based validation of user needs.
WP3 - Visible supporting contribution. Polistudium should not seek technical ownership of the engineering core, but can contribute to methodological consistency, evaluation logic, operator-facing materials and scientific framing of the demonstrator.
WP4 - Supporting contribution. Relevant contribution through stakeholder engagement with utilities and local authorities, uptake-oriented workshops and structured collection of implementation feedback.
WP5 - Major supporting role. A strong role is realistic on interpretability, usability requirements, operational playbooks, training materials, stakeholder validation and translation of digital outputs into adoption-oriented formats.
WP6 - Supporting contribution. Contribution to governance-oriented procedures, stakeholder acceptance of data-sharing practices and usability review of collaborative workflows.
WP7 - Supporting contribution. Contribution to training formats, communication procedures and stakeholder-facing support during resilience drills and continuity exercises.
WP8 - Major implementation role. This is one of the most important participation areas. Polistudium can support pilot protocol harmonisation, qualitative and quantitative validation, operator feedback capture, stakeholder evidence packages and synthesis of cross-pilot learning.
WP9 - Leadership or co-leadership candidate. This is the second strongest leadership area. Polistudium can coordinate scientific dissemination, editorial outputs, webinars, training, stakeholder materials, good-practice narratives and replication-oriented uptake support.
3. Team positioning
Polistudium - lead on qualitative and quantitative stakeholder research, consensus-building methods, protocol support, scientific supervision, dissemination planning and publication-oriented outputs.
Where relevant, selected outreach, stakeholder-facing formats and uptake support activities may be delivered with the contribution and scientific coordination of Polistudium.
Luca Giacomelli - scientific coordination support, protocol and evidence framing, publication support and alignment between stakeholder-facing activities and project-level scientific positioning.
Roberto Eggenhoffner - support on AI-informed scientific framing, membrane-related reasoning, advanced scientific writing and translation of technical results into clear dissemination and validation narratives.
4. Proposed external positioning statement
Polistudium proposes to contribute to RETRO-RO as a high-value methodological and uptake partner with leadership in two strategic work packages and substantive involvement across the wider action. Its strongest role lies in translating technical innovation into robust baselines, validated stakeholder requirements, harmonised pilot evidence, scientific dissemination outputs, training formats and replication-ready uptake assets. This positioning allows the project to remain technically led where appropriate, while ensuring that project results are methodologically sound, stakeholder-relevant, communicable and adoptable.