On May 12, 2026, within the scope of the project WAVES – Água do Mar e Águas Residuais: Transformar Desafios em Recursos, teachers from public schools in the Northern region visited several research laboratories at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of FEUP. The visit involved teachers from the Escola Básica e Secundária do Cerco, Escola Secundária de Paredes and Escola Básica de Santa Bárbara, participating in the first edition of the teacher training course Environmental Education and Participatory Methodologies – Water Circle Strategy.

The programme aimed to promote closer contact between teachers and the scientific work developed within WAVES, particularly in the areas of water treatment, resource recovery and environmental sustainability. The visit included laboratories and experimental facilities dedicated to advanced wastewater treatment, nutrient and mineral recovery, analytical methods for the detection of organic pollutants, electrochemical and photocatalytic treatment technologies, membrane distillation, catalytic ozonation, biofilm formation studies and microalgae-based approaches for micropollutant removal.

LSRE-LCM warmly thanks Ana Isabel Gomes, Catarina Cruzeiro, Marta Oliveira Barbosa, Ana Gorito, André Torres-Pinto, Rita Fernandes, Sofia Santos, António Ferreira and Inês B. Gomes for welcoming the teachers and presenting their work in a clear, engaging and accessible way. The visit helped bring FEUP research closer to the school community and strengthened the link between scientific research and environmental education.

On May 12, 2026, the general meeting of the project WAVES – Água do Mar e Águas Residuais: Transformar Desafios em Recursos was held at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of FEUP, in a hybrid format. Funded by NORTE2030 under the Structured R&D Projects programme, WAVES is coordinated by LSRE-LCM at FEUP, and brings together the research units LEPABE and CEFT, also from FEUP, and CIIE from FPCEUP. The project follows an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to the valorisation of urban wastewater and seawater, focusing on alternative water sources for agriculture and green hydrogen production, nutrient and mineral recovery, sustainable technologies, and environmental education.

During the meeting, the teams presented the main developments in the four project activities: Wastewater & Resource Recovery, coordinated by Vítor Vilar from LSRE-LCM/FEUP; Seawater & Resource Recovery, coordinated by Adrián Silva from LSRE-LCM/FEUP and António Ferreira from LEPABE/FEUP; Social Awareness & Education, coordinated by Sofia Pais from CIIE/FPCEUP; and Project Management & Coordination, coordinated by Joaquim Faria from LSRE-LCM/FEUP. The session provided an important opportunity to consolidate the project’s current status, align priorities for the next stages, and reinforce collaboration between the participating research units.