PREWAPHARM

The PREWAPHARM (Prevention of Water Pollution by Pharmaceuticals) project is an international collaboration aiming to reduce the environmental impact of pharmaceutical waste in the North-West Europe region. The project focuses on innovative strategies to prevent pharmaceuticals from entering water systems, particularly through improved collection, disposal, and treatment processes.

Objectives

The project’s overarching goal is to reduce the presence of pharmaceuticals in water by: 

• Creating a transnational strategy to serve as a policy framework and guidelines for local action plans, ensuring a supporting policy to reduce pharmaceuticals in water in the whole Northwest Europe region 

• Strengthening governance and collaboration across borders and sectors to establish harmonized frameworks for pharmaceutical pollution prevention in healthcare and water management. 

• Developing and piloting innovative upstream solutions to reduce pharmaceutical emissions at the source, including technical innovations in healthcare and water treatment systems. 

• Creating scalable models and toolkits for other regions and EU member states, ensuring the replicability of successful approaches and technologies. 

• Enhancing awareness and behavior change among healthcare professionals, pharmacists, patients and the general public through targeted communication and educational strategies. 

These objectives align with the EU’s Zero Pollution Action Plan and the Water Framework Directive by focusing on source prevention, rather than solely relying on end-of-pipe solutions. 

Financial Support: 

The project is co-funded by the Interreg North-West Europe Programme with a total budget of €9,8 million, of which €5,9 million is provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). 

Project Duration: 

The project runs from 11 December, 2024 - 31 December, 2028 

Partners: 

• TCNN Innovation Support (Netherlands) 

• University of Groningen (Netherlands) 

• VITO (Belgium) 

• German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (Germany) 

• University Medical Centre Groningen (Netherlands) 

• University of Münster (Germany) 

• University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg) 

• University of Leuven, represented by KU Leuven R&D (Belgium) 

• Ghent University (Belgium) 

• Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (Luxembourg) 

• Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (Netherlands) 

• Obseq (Netherlands) 

• Ghent University Hospital (Belgium) 

• Aquafin NV (Belgium) 

• RDI Hub Company Limited By Guarantee (Ireland) 

• Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin (Ireland) 

• Zorgbelang Groningen (Netherlands) 

• Pasteur Institute of Lille (France) 

Together, these partners combine their expertise to tackle a pressing environmental issue and promote long-term water sustainability across the region via the established Northwest European Centre of Medicine Residues.