About Jos Brils

More than 20 years ago (2002-2004) Jos had the honour and pleasure to kick-off the EU project SedNet (European Sediment Network) as coordinator. After that project, SedNet continued as fully self-supporting network engaging sediment professionals from all over Europe and beyond. Now Jos raises on behalf of SedNet the voice for sediment in EU environmental policy trajectories, such as the Water Framework Directive (WFD) Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) Strategic Coordination Group (SCG). As such he helped to initiate and was co-author of the WFD CIS sediment management guidance document (2022).

Jos: “It took 15 years of SedNet lobby, but now sediment is finally full in WFD scope!”

Application of this guide helps to achieve the WFD and other EU environmental policy objectives and thus par excellence ‘Enables Delta Life’.

His passion for international networking and for sustainable natural resources management – especially sediment – got him more than 10 years ago committed to another long-term trajectory: the construction of the Research Infrastructure (RI) DANUBIUS-RI. This is a pan-European RI aimed to better understand river-sea systems under influence of global change as well as human miss-use. Better understanding enables the design of more effective measures to restore and protect the health of river-sea systems: another crucial Enabler of Delta Life. Jos engaged in the writing and defending of the proposal that got DANUBIUS in 2016 included in the prestigious European Strategy for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap. In 2022 the Dutch minster for Infrastructure and Water Management signed the letter for the Netherlands to become member of the legal entity DANUBIUS-ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium). It is expected that DANUBIUS will achieve the ERIC status by the end of 2024.

For his dedication to DANUBIUS, Jos was in 2020 rewarded a medal by the Romanian president. He was appointed officer in the Romanian cultural merit order in the field of scientific research.

His track-record got Jos accepted and trusted as coordinator of the Horizon Europe project (2024 – 2028) LandSeaLot: “Land-Sea interface: Let’s Observe Together!” LandSeaLot aims to link in situ, Earth observations and models together, and connect related communities, citizens and initiatives such as Copernicus, ESA, EEA, GEOSS, EMODnet and the European Digital Twin of the Ocean. These communities and other key stakeholders will be invited to workshops to contribute to the analysis of needs and observations gaps, and to co-design a joint and common land-sea interface observation strategy and its implementation plan.