Ensuring a healthy and sustainable future through the protection and conservation of water resources

Our mission is to generate solutions that help protect and improve waters for sustainable natural environments, healthy populations, resilient communities, and sound economies.

4th Annual Meeting May 19-21, 2026

Do you have a Water Challenge You Can’t Solve Alone?

We leverage NYSTAR funding and a 1:1 partner match (including in-kind) to support collaborative R&D with industry, nonprofits, municipalities and other entities to advance healthy water solutions that also deliver economic impact in New York State.

Funded Projects by Challenge

Ecological Restoration

Restoring waterbodies and their immediate, mutually-supportive natural environments is critical to ensuring ecosystem health and vitality. We pursue collaborative research with local organizations and communities to prioritize ecosystem restoration and further investigation of water that has been degraded by pollutants as well as other causes. These projects seek to aid in recovery and to mitigate future impacts, improve water quality for aquatic habitat, public health, recreation, and other ecosystem values, and aid in the transfer of solutions and knowledge broadly to ensure healthy waters across New York State.

Aquatic Ecosystem Health

Understanding ecosystem dynamics, function, and management from sustainable perspectives is imperative to the ecology and health of New York’s rivers, lakes, and wetlands. We support collaborative research projects in partnership with communities, organizations, and networks, to monitor, analyze, and model water quality, biodiversity, and the integrity of ecological processes. We utilize this research to assess, predict, and ensure through innovative solutions the balance, ecological structure, and resilience of these diverse ecosystems within the range of their natural variability.

Environmental Health Risk Assessment

An environmental health risk assessment is the process of evaluating the potential adverse effects of environmental hazards - such as pollutants, contaminants, and pathogens - on human health and ecosystems. We support projects that center thorough assessments to help identify risks, analyze potential impacts, and determine the likelihood of harm to inform risk management and mitigation strategies.

Agriculture Nutrient Impact on Ecosystems

Our technical research capacity is ideally positioned to address agriculture nutrient impact on natural environments, an important and growing challenge. We support projects that examine how the application of fertilizers and other nutrient sources via agricultural practices,, can influence the health and functioning of adjacent, downstream, and groundwater aquatic environments. We are particularly interested in how nutrient loads might contribute to ecosystem imbalance and eutrophication, and work with sector participants, practitioners, communities, and decision-makers to accelerate innovative and transformative solutions.

Technology Development

Often water quality research yields innovative solutions that ideally lead to the commercialization of technologies and tools, as well as the development and implementation of advanced systems and processes designed to monitor, improve, and manage the health and quality of water resources. With technical capacity in environmental engineering, often in collaboration with expertise across the spectrum of technology-based R&D, we support projects that accelerate lab- and site-to-market technology and solutions.

Drinking Water

We co-design and implement projects that examine the quality, safety, and sustainability of water intended for human consumption, focusing on accessibility, filtration, reuse, and treatment processes and the removal of contaminants, including emerging pollutants like PFAS. The overarching goal of our funded projects is to ensure that drinking water meets health standards, effectively addressing new and existing contaminants, and supports overall health and well-being of New York residents.

Industrial Wastewater

We engage in projects that investigate the composition, treatment, and management of wastewater generated by industrial processes. The aim is to develop and optimize methods and solutions for reducing pollution, improving treatment efficiency, investigating opportunities and approaches for reuse, and ensuring that discharged wastewater meets environmental regulations and sustainability goals.

Municipal Wastewater

We partner with municipalities and water resource recovery facilities to explore the treatment, management, and impact of wastewater generated from residential, commercial, and institutional sources. Our projects focus on enhancing wastewater treatment processes, minimizing impacts, and ensuring safe and sustainable water reuse or discharge practices, including rigorous new treatment processes for biosolids application. We partner with municipalities and water resource recovery facilities to explore the treatment, management, and impact of wastewater generated from residential, commercial, and institutional sources. Our projects focus on enhancing wastewater treatment processes, minimizing impacts, and ensuring safe and sustainable water reuse or discharge practices, including rigorous new treatment processes for biosolids application.

Education and Outreach

We recognize that the adoption of healthy water solutions and new practices at the individual and community level require greater awareness and public understanding, as well as the adoption and institutionalization of behavioral and even systemic change. To that end, our CoE supports activities that align with these aims to empower communities with knowledge and tools to contribute effectively to environmental conservation and management efforts. We also support initiatives that build and retain scientific research and development (R&D) capacity in New York State, including student internships and research opportunities, workforce development, educational programming, innovation challenges, and citizen science training.

News &
Events

Read the latest news about the NYS Center of Excellence in Healthy Water Solutions!

Ensuring a healthy and sustainable future through the protection and conservation of water resources

4th Annual Meeting May 19-21, 2026

Do you have a Water Challenge You Can’t Solve Alone?

Funded Projects by Challenge

News &
Events

Clarkson Researchers Report Breakthrough in PFAS Destruction

Clarkson University Receives $1 Million From Gates Foundation for New Water Treatment Projects

Portable Sensors: The Next Generation of PFAS Detection

About NYS Centers of Excellence

Ensuring a healthy and sustainable future through the protection and conservation of water resources

4th Annual Meeting May 19-21, 2026

Do you have a Water Challenge You Can’t Solve Alone?

Funded Projects by Challenge

News & Events

Clarkson Researchers Report Breakthrough in PFAS Destruction

Clarkson University Receives $1 Million From Gates Foundation for New Water Treatment Projects

Portable Sensors: The Next Generation of PFAS Detection

About NYS Centers of Excellence

News &
Events