La Palma Research Centre takes part in the 3rd GENESIS General Assembly and organises a Clustering Workshop on water nature-based solutions in Faial (October 2026, Azores)

LPRC joined the 3rd General Assembly of the Horizon Europe funded project GENESIS, hosted by the Município da Horta and Trisolaris Advanced Technologies in Faial, Azores. The meeting closed with a Clustering Workshop, “Water nature-based solutions for islands’ resilience”, which LPRC organised.

During the first day, the consortium reviewed the progress across all work packages. Partners presented the Macaronesia water climate risk observatory, nature-based solutions (NbS) mainstreaming, the implementation of demonstrators and replicators, and the La Palma Living Lab. The second day was devoted to the nine case studies, from El Hierro, La Palma, Gran Canaria, Faial, Santiago and Madeira, and ended with the work plan for the next six months. LPRC led the session on dissemination and outreach and the KERs (Key Exploitable Results) workshop.

LPRC organised and coordinated the Clustering Workshop, which took place in Horta and online. It brought together GENESIS partners, sister projects and regional stakeholders to explore how NbS can make critical water infrastructure on islands more climate-resilient. The programme included:

• Faial as a shared case study: mapping the island’s critical water infrastructure and its interdependencies, and the climate pressures and cascading impacts affecting it.
• Existing NbS in Faial: solutions from GENESIS, the Observatório das Ribeiras e Lagoas (ORLA) and LIFE IP CLIMAZ, with the Azores Government.
• Expanding the NbS toolbox: contributions from GENESIS, Med-IREN, NATURE-DEMO and S+T+ARTS Aqua Motion.
• NbS cost-benefit canvas exercise: a hands-on session led by the Universidad de La Laguna, with individual and group work and a final discussion.

The workshop offered a space to exchange experiences, identify synergies between projects and strengthen the links needed to replicate and scale NbS in other islands and outermost regions.

Participants also visited the Faial demonstrator at Cancelas Well. There, GENESIS will build an aquifer storage and recovery system to counter saltwater intrusion and restore the freshwater supply capacity of Furo das Cancelas.

LPRC would like to thank the Município da Horta and Trisolaris for their hospitality, the speakers and sister projects for their contributions, and all participants, in person and online.

GENESIS has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101157447.