Home Results and reports Tech and sci description Impact and dissemination Consortium description Project management Contact

timmar.biogeochemistry.ro © 2013-2014

This document was last modified on: GMT

Added value of the project results at national, European and international level. The project will contribute to the increase of competitiveness both at private and public level. As the effect on private business growth is clearly documented in part 2.4, here we tackle the public aspects.

By proving environmental services for predicting the effect at distance of the management of mining areas the project has and impact on:

• The design of management plans of river basins, of interest for water authorities.

• The management of floodplain contaminated soils, of interest for soil authorities when the floodplains are used for subsistence crops as in many cases in Romania.

• The management of the species and ecological diversity associated with river corridors. It is known that the river corridors are often candidates for the ecological corridors needed for the Natura 2000 networks.

Estimating the effects of mining areas management plans (in particular of tailing ponds management plans) on the downstream river and floodplain quality is crucial both for the management of the source systems, and of the target (buffering systems). Often the contamination of distant hot-spots cannot be allocated to one polluting source, and the management costs of these secondarily polluted sites are in the responsibility of the owners or of the public administrations. With our tools developed in the frame of multi-scale concept of hazard assessment there is a possibility to identify the potential contamination source, to discriminate between the influences of different sources, and make operational the application of the „polluter pay” principle. On the other hand, if a remediation project has positive effects downstream, then it means that not only the benefits at/around the tailing dam should be considered in the cost benefit analyses supporting the remediation decision, but also the distant benefits. TIMMAR results can be used for providing arguments in order to increase the budget of the remediation projects to achieve the highest benefits at all scales. The use of the budgets for remediation is made more efficient by the TIMMAR Objective 2 results supporting an ecological approach of the tailing pound revegetation. This will have an impact both at private level, when the remediation is paid by the mining industry, or at public level, when the remediation of orphan sites is covered from national or European funds.

While the tools are designed specifically for the population of Romanian tailing dams and their integrating catchments, they can be applicable for similar geochemical, mineralogical, geomorphological and climatic in Central and Eastern Europe.

Dissemination and exploitation of the project results

A specific workpackage (WP5) is dedicated to activities for the dissemination and exploitation of the project results. The identification and stakeholders and potential clients is done in a mixed approach combining stakeholder analyses and stakeholder forum construction (by analogy to those created for Water Framework Directive implementation) with marketing. The specific problems of services marketing will be taken into account in designing the communication strategy in a professional way (intangibility, inseparability of production and consumption, the larger heterogeneity compared to goods, and the fact that cannot be saved – Zeithaml et al. 1985). After clarification of what will be appropriate for patenting from the project result by consulting OSIM the publication policy of projects results will be finalized. Since the scientific partners are committed to scientific excellence, the first and important avenue for the dissemination of results remains their publication in peer-reviewed, high-prestige scientific journals by all partners in cooperation. In addition, the data are disseminated in teaching at universities, in specific summer schools incorporated in the existing educational platform.

The forum of stakeholders constituted after their identification will be the main target for disseminating the information about the economic use of the services and technology developed in the project. Guidelines for governments and politicians are one of the additional values of the project and will be laid down in guidelines proposed to combine the socio-economic aims of mining sites and water regulations. For this, the existing support of national authorities is important. The public knowledge resulted from the project will be made available for end-users in Romania and European Union using the FP7 network of UB partners. Conferences and workshops to disseminate guidelines as well as scientific outcomes and tools for decision makers will be held annually and managed by organizers identified in the annual meeting. We will not list here potential journals and conferences, because the CVs of the key persons demonstrate that they are connected to the international community and are aware of the existing opportunities. The TIMMAR website www.timmar.biogeochemistry.ro has been constructed and used for communication in real time between team members during the development of this project. It will be an important source for distribution and public relations of the project after the eventual selection of the project. It will be used as a platform for keeping close contact especially among the PhD students. This “virtual desk” feature of an intranet allows the easy exchange of data which is prerequisite to include data as soon as they become available into the work programs of other partners. The website will have a blog and will create content that solves problems of the identified stakeholders. The site will be promoted in the social media channels to reach large social audience in the community interested in solutions to environmental problems.

1.1 The project topic and its practical relevance 1.2 Project contribution beyond the state of the art 1.3 Project objectives and outcomes 1.4 Original and innovative contributions of the project 1.5 Inter-, multi-, or trans- disciplinary characteristics

2.1 Dissemination and exploitation of the project results 2.2 Possible applications with market potential 2.3 Estimated improvements in the quality of life 2.4 Project integration in the development strategy of partners  2.5 Intellectual property protection

3.1 Project director 3.2 Consortium structure 3.3 Partner research team leaders 3.4 Partner team structure 3.5 Consortium complementarities and synergies between partners

4.1 Work plan, deliverables and load balancing 4.2 Coordination and task schedule 4.3 Available research infrastructure, and its upgrade/development 4.4 Project budget and partners share