Date   : 15th Oct 20

The objectives of this roundtable session was to discuss on the topics presented at the previously held WIN WATSAN Webinar Series 2020 and possible future collaboration opportunities for projects or any other activities

This session was a closed group discussion with 25 participants from nationally renowned institutions in the domain of Water and Sanitation viz. CEPT University – Centre for Water and Sanitation (CWAS), IIT Bombay – Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Kharagpur – School of Environmental Sciences, IIT Gandhinagar – Centre for Sustainable Development, Arid Communities and Technologies, Mahila Housing Sewa Trust,  WIN Foundation and start-ups like Proximal Soilsens, Oston Technology including a few additional guests.

WIN Foundation coordinated and organized this roundtable session on behalf of all partners.

Summary of discussions and way forward:

1. Institutions, corporates, startup and NGOs, with varied approaches to address water and sanitation issues, have a high potential for collaborative inter-disciplinary action research projects for integrated solutions. Institutions can bring faculty and students (Undergraduates, Masters, PhD and Post-docs) participation, as also emphasized in the New Education Policy 2020.
2. Research coupled with pilots which include developing implementation processes, community involvement and ownership of solutions, skilling at grass roots, and demonstrated outcomes for society, will generate best advocacy at grass root levels among communities, as well as with government. 
3. Opportunity for startups to collaborate and work together with research institutions and field organisations can bring innovations to the field with innovative business models for sustainability and scalability.
4. Platforms/consortiums of institutions and organizations can address and take up specific projects to integrated solutions, as the communities or villages cannot integrate themselves and solutions from established commercial world are unaffordable or inaccessible for such communities. 
5. WIN Foundation will continue its initiative to bring diverse stakeholders together; for the common goal of social impact in sustainable manner. All joint organizers too welcome dialogue with other stakeholders for this.