title: Educating for action: Aligning skills with policies for sustainable development in the Danube river basin.
abstract: Sustainable river basin management depends on knowledge, skills and education. The DANCERS project set out to identify feasible options for achieving education for sustainable water management across the Danube river basin, and its integration with broader education and economic development. The study traced the historic, regulatory and educational landscape of water management in the basin, contrasting it with the complex political decision-making, data-heavy decision support, learning-centred collaboration, and information-based participation that are all inherent components of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). While there is a wide range of educational opportunities and mobility schemes available to individuals, there is no coherent network related to training in water management and sustainable development in the study region. Progress in addressing the multi-layered environmental challenges within the basin requires further aligning of economic, environmental and educational policies, advancing the EU Bologna Process across the region, and the development of dedicated training programmes that combine technical and relational skills. The DANCERS project identified key short and medium term needs for education and research to support progressive adoption of sustainable development, and the necessary dialogue across the public and private sectors to align policies. These include the development of new education networks for masters and PhD programmes, including joint programmes; improved access to technical training and life-long learning programmes for skills development; developing formalized and certified competency structures and associated accreditation of institutions where such skilled individuals work; and developing a co-ordinated research infrastructure and pan-basin programme for research for water management and sustainable development.
authors.affiliation: UNESCO IHE Institute of Water Education, Westvest 7, 2611 AX Delft, The Netherlands. Electronic address: K.irvine@unesco-ihe.org.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Irvine
authors.affiliation: WasserCluster Lunz GmbH, Dr. Carl Kupelwieser Promenade 5, 3293 Lunz am See, Austria; University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, Max-Emanuel Straße 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: gabriele.weigelhofer@wkl.ac.at.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Weigelhofer
authors.affiliation: UNESCO IHE Institute of Water Education, Westvest 7, 2611 AX Delft, The Netherlands. Electronic address: i.popescu@unesco-ihe.org.
authors.forename: Ioana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Popescu
authors.affiliation: Managing for Sustainability, Lookwatering 7b, 2635CJ Den Hoorn, The Netherlands. Electronic address: mail@ellen-pfeiffer.de.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pfeiffer
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics Department, National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences, Splaiul Independentei nr. 296, CP 16-17, 060031 Bucharest, Romania; Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieros Informaticos, Universitad Politecnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo s/n, Boadilla del Monte, 28660 Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: andreipaun@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Andrei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Păun
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest, Romania. Electronic address: drobot@utcb.ro.
authors.forename: Radu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Drobot
authors.affiliation: UNESCO IHE Institute of Water Education, Westvest 7, 2611 AX Delft, The Netherlands. Electronic address: g.gettel@unesco-ihe.org.
authors.forename: Gretchen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gettel
authors.affiliation: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, Max-Emanuel Straße 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: Bernadette.Staska@boku.ac.at.
authors.forename: Bernadette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Staska
authors.affiliation: Romanian National Institute of Marine Geology and Geoecology, GeoEcoMar, Str. Dimitrie Onciul 23-25, Sector 2, 024053 Bucharest, Romania. Electronic address: astanica@geoecomar.ro.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stanica
authors.affiliation: WasserCluster Lunz GmbH, Dr. Carl Kupelwieser Promenade 5, 3293 Lunz am See, Austria; University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, Max-Emanuel Straße 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: thomas.hein@boku.ac.at.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hein
authors.affiliation: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, Max-Emanuel Straße 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: helmut.habersack@boku.ac.at.
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Habersack
keywords: Bologna process; Danube; EU policy; Integrated river basin management; Skill development; Sustainable development