Background
The FHNW School of Life Sciences, based in Muttenz, near Basel, is part of Europe’s largest life sciences centre.
Lying at the heart of pharmaceutical and medical technology, the chemical industry and environmental and biotechnology, the School of Life Sciences trains skilled specialists to come up with solutions to the social and economic challenges of tomorrow.
FHWN is committed to developing new preventive and therapeutic products and services, improving people’s quality of life and promoting a sustainable attitude to the environment.
The Environmental and Water Technology research group investigates innovative technologies and processes for reducing emissions and removing harmful substances from water, wastewater and waste. This also includes recovery and reuse of materials.
Developing and emerging countries are addressing water supply and sanitation challenges with nature-inspired solutions. Simple and robust membrane processes such as gravity driven membrane for water supply and related water kiosk concepts are key activities in this field.
Relevant experiences
Water treatment and recycling technologies. Social design. Information and communication technology (ICT). Development, implementation and technology transfer of the Gravit’eau handwashing systems, water kiosks and on-site water treatment technologies. Humanitarian Innovation Fund projects on technology choice support for water treatment systems. WASH innovations in hospitals. Cooperation and support of technology choice projects with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Terre des hommes. EU water supply and water reuse projects. Capacity development activities including preparation of MOOC courses, e-learning initiatives and collaborations with University partners in the South through SUDAC Swiss university projects. Trainings on WASH, water loss reduction and hygiene.
Role in the hands4health project
Overall project management and coordination, engineering and design expertise. Methodology development for performance and user acceptance evaluations. Scale up strategy. Capacity development. Data analysis. Stakeholder engagement. Dissemination.
Work package(s)
- WP 1 – Coordination and internal learning (lead: FHNW, co-lead: Tdh)
- WP 2 – Technical innovations (lead: EPFL – Laboratory for Water Quality and Treatment, co-lead: Martin Systems)
- WP 5 – Holistic approach to implementation (lead: FHNW, co-lead: University of Maiduguri)
- WP 7 – Open-source data sharing platform and capacity development (lead: Skat Foundation, co-lead: FHNW)
- WP 8 – Adoption at scale (lead: Tdh)