Last week, a delegation from the Chair of Agricultural Production and Resource Economics at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) proudly participated in the Dresden Nexus Conference (DNC) 2025—a leading global platform on the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus.
Held under the theme "The future of resources, Resources of the future", this year’s conference brought together scientists, policymakers, and practitioners from around the world to tackle today’s most pressing sustainability challenges through systems thinking and integrated governance.
TUM Workshop: Nexus Smart Water Governance
On Day 1 of the conference, the TUM team—together with our esteemed partners from adelphi—led a well-attended workshop titled:
“Nexus Smart Water Governance”.
In this session, we unveiled an innovative digital monitoring tool designed to assess and support water management strategies across dimensions and sectors, through a WEFE Nexus lens. This cutting-edge tool, co-developed within the EU Horizon 2020 project RETOUCH Nexus, aims to enable stakeholders to better understand interlinkages and make data-informed, integrated decisions.
đź”— Learn more about the project here: retouch-nexus.eu
Collaborative Energy and Valuable Feedback
The workshop was met with strong interest and engagement from a diverse audience—including researchers, development agencies, public institutions, and private sector representatives. The interactive discussions and feedback we received were both constructive and inspiring, offering new perspectives to refine and scale the tool’s potential impact.
Key themes that emerged from stakeholder interactions included:
- The need for interoperable data frameworks in water governance
- Opportunities for cross-sectoral policy alignment
- The importance of local adaptation and stakeholder ownership in digital governance tools
- Potential synergies with climate resilience and biodiversity conservation efforts
These conversations reinforced the importance of co-designing digital solutions with end-users in mind, and highlighted the value of platforms like DNC for accelerating innovation through open dialogue and collaboration.
Looking Ahead
As the leading institution within the RETOUCH Nexus project, our chair remains committed to advancing resilient, inclusive, and data-driven water governance—in Europe and beyond.
We extend our sincere thanks to the organizers of Dresden Nexus Conference 2025, to all participants in our session, and to our partners at adelphi and across RETOUCH Nexus for their dedication and shared vision.
Stay connected as we continue to drive forward impactful research at the interface of agriculture, environment, and policy.
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