COOPWEM (Cooperative Water and Renewable Energies Management) was a project funded by a European Reintegration Grant (ERG). It allowed Mrs Suhita Osório-Peters to stay in CEIFA for further three years after the end of her first Marie Curie Fellowship, which let her come to CEIFA in 2005 as an Experienced Researcher. She was the main responsible for implementation of the Marie Curie Project ToKforCEIFIADE (MTKD-CT-2004-014312) - Building Capacities for Change Management in Portugal.

After the end of ToKforCEIFIADE, both parts were strongly interested in continue their joint venture. The ERG-project COOPWEM provided CEIFA some financial support for the costs and the implementation of an enriching research work.

COOPWEM started in April 2008 and was closed in March 2011. Building upon the results of ToKforCEIFIADE, COOPWEM should develop integrated approaches in three complementary research areas: a) new instruments for the management of natural resources, b) local innovation systems and c) solidarity economy.

In the first 18 months of the project, literature on the issues at stake was reviewed and concepts have been clarified. A main focus of the work was the analysis of practical applications of the concepts “Communities for Sustainable Energy” (CO4SE) and Water Users Associations (WUA) in Portugal. We wanted to find out to which extent this type of instruments (cooperative management) is helpful both to implement sustainable management of natural resources at regional level and to improve local innovation systems.

Concerning the agents involved, we expected that private investors would be especially interested in building CO4SE, while main interested parts in WUA would probably be municipalities and farmers associations. Therefore, during the first 18 months of the project, important efforts were developed towards these target groups to stimulate cooperative natural resource management; however, no appropriate examples for an empirical study could be found. Public and private investors give clear preference to individual projects. Cooperative solutions are normally regarded with suspiciousness. This situation obliged to a deep reflection about the goals of the project.

At the middle term, we came to the conclusion that it would be important to redesign the project as follows:

i)                    analyse the reasons why cooperative solutions (CO4SE and WUA) are not popular in Portugal and

ii)                  re-direct the scope of the research to other applications that seem better appropriate to address the key questions of COOPWEM (new instruments for the management of natural resources; local innovation systems; solidarity economy).

Analysing the reasons why the model "producers' and consumers' cooperatives" is not very popular in Portugal as an instrument to promote the use of renewable energies and save water resources, we concluded that there are historical and cultural reasons that may explain the barriers we have found. After the Pink Revolution in 1974, cooperative movements experienced an exciting development in Portugal. However, today most agrarian cooperatives disappeared or they just survive; the majority was not able to overcome the barriers created by legislation, and they had not the resources to face growing competition at the markets. A strong feeling of mistrust and powerlessness prevails. A paper on this issue has been published in Portuguese; a summary in English is also available.

To re-direct the scope of research to more promising fields, we have been searching for other (cooperative) instruments for the sustainable management of natural resources. Fortunately, at that time the host institution became involved in a large European Collaborative project, ZeroWIN - Towards Zero Waste in Industrial Networks (Grant Agreement No 226752); the main objective of this project is to develop and assess new and innovative approaches and effective strategies for the reduction of resource usage and waste prevention based on industrial networking. As the project focuses on waste, energy and water, the scope of this project overlaps, to an important extent, the initial objectives of COOPWEM; synergies between both projects could therefore be exploited.

During the project duration Mrs Osório-Peters was engaged in the coordination and preparation of new research projects; three of them are currently being implemented: ZeroWIN, NILE and EduCamp. Due to her engagement, CEIFA has been strongly involved in the promotion of ESD (Education for Sustainable Development), too. It is member of the Steering Committee of CREIAS-Oeste (Regional Centre of Expertise of Education for Sustainable Development), since its official acknowledgement by the UNU (United States University) in 2008.

As a whole, and although some adaptation has been made during its implementation, the main objectives set could be addressed. COOPWEM had an important positive influence on the strategic goals of our enterprise and the development of our research and consulting capacities. Due to the great efforts made in communication with stakeholders, it strongly promoted the discussion about the suitability of cooperative solutions for sustainable regional development in Portugal. Synergies with other European projects could be explored. Finally, it stimulated new educational activities that have unfolded wider societal impacts and new opportunities for international networking.

For Mrs Osório-Peters, important improvement in her professional carrier could be achieved: since a few months, she has become member of the direction of the host institution, responsibilities for the scientific and management coordination of all scientific and educational activities.