On April 26th 2022, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid organised and executed the 1st Nexus Ecosystem Lab (NEL) workshop with the title “Water-Energy-Ecosystem Nexus: Fair and sustainable agri-food systems” in the San Agustín Cultural Center (P.º de Filipinos, 7, CP 47007) in Valladolid city, Spain. The goal of the workshop was to mobilise and engage the NEL Stakeholders for creating awareness about the Water, Energy, Food, Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus challenge in their location and to initiate a discussion for co-defining a WEFE-Nexus common vision and transition plan and to prepare them for collaboration in the coming NEXUS-NESS NEL workshop(s) and activities.
The workshop was held in the framework of the NEXUS-NESS project and of the application of the NEL Innovation Ecosystem Approach. A total of 14 participants were recruited based on their expertise and interest in the NEL-Duero Challenges. The workshop engaged agriculturist, cooperatives, local and regional institutions, energy companies, fertilizer companies, agricultural science and technology universities, and irrigation communities as NEL stakeholders in a participatory debate to examine the WEFE-NEXUS Challenge(s) and to co-define WEFE-Nexus ideas for co-creation of a transition WEFE-Nexus vision, plan and actions.
The half-day-long workshop was facilitated according to the World Café method in three rounds with five to six participants at each table. This method allows for integrating contributions from individuals with diverse views, backgrounds and perspectives through a process that is structured, inclusive, and collaborative.
During the workshop the participants formulated 33 statements of WEFE-NEXUS actions based on the triggering question: How can technology contribute to agriculture, improve water management, balance energy and fertilizer costs, and improve our ecosystem? These statements were grouped in three topics named water, energy and natural environment. The host at each table presented the statements and these were discussed among the stakeholders and voted.
The main messages were agriculture’s digitization with tools that help steakholders in decision making (monitoring and sensorization) and allow to reduce costs, as well as reduce the deterioration of the environment (fertigation), more efficient irrigation systems designs and introduction of renewable energies, mainly photovoltaics.