EMH has restarted
After a quite long period of inactivity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and necessitated by the Belgian government’s request to review their statutes, EMH is pleased to announce the resumption of its activities in late spring 2024. This has been made possible thanks to the establishment of a new leadership team. The General Assembly held at the end of November 2024 was an opportunity to present the new orientations introduced -scientific diplomacy, biomimicry- alongside the traditional activities -research and technology -of the association, the new tools put in place to strengthen the efficiency of management -notably concerning decision rules- and the now possible inclusion of individual members where the previous statutes limited membership to legal entities. As a result of this restructuring, we have completely redesigned our website, updated our logo and launched our digital communication tools (social medias, newsletters, podcasts, etc.). Thus, EMH will pursue its action with a keen sense of continuity while opening more widely to become a real "hub".
2024 EMH activities
In addition to the numerous administrative activities carried out since the spring - website, hiring formalities for the communication officer, internal work meetings for the restart of the association - some filed activities have been conducted. In particular:
- Congress’s participation: Prof. Marc Heran (University of Montpellier), the new President of the EMH, was present to EuroMed 2024 congress in Montpellier with a poster presenting EMH’s activities and missions. A promotional video was created for the event, highlighting some interesting aspects of the European Life Project ReWa, promoting membrane technology for reuse wastewater of which M.Heran was a partner (See: ReWa project). 150 experts and academics attended the EuroMed 2024 congress.
- Education & Training: Led by M.Heran who intervened as expert, EMH exceptionally supported UNESCO training of North African young researchers in membrane science for the environment on the nexus water reuse-energy-food (see: website).
- Science diplomacy: Led by H.Noiseau (EMH’s CEO), a working group on science diplomacy with two keys results was launched. A participation to COP-16 on biodiversity & COP-29 on Climate through joint event and policy articles prepared with international community for environmental peacebuilding of Geneva. The strategic objectives were to create links with decision-makers, civil society and NGOs and promote the roles of membrane sciences and technologies for conservation, resource management, pollution among others.
2025 EMH projects
At the start of 2025, 3 projects are at the core of the management team's concerns and have already induced various contacts, in the field of: Education & training: a collaboration with the Erasmus Mundus Master MESD in the form of two scholarships for students during the summer. Their work would consist of producing analysis and synthesis reports on important subjects that have been little studied to date. R&D : the preparation of a European project is envisaged within a consortium in which the EMH would take charge of all the tasks relating to management, communication and dissemination as was the case in the past (see: website) Networking & structuration: Prof. Gilbert M. Rios (current treasurer and former President of EMH, director of the UNESCO SIMEV chair “Membrane Science for the Environment”) approached UNESCO to recognise EMH as a new UNESCO Club.
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