The Better Thames Network was a NERC funded project, administered by the University of Westminster, devised to support the E.A. and local stakeholders implement the Water Framework Directive (WFD) targets for water quality in the Thames River Basin District. Its primary objective was to develop and support an interconnected community of scientists and stakeholders who could make a scientific contribution to, or have a role in, implementation of the Thames River Basin Management Plan. A number of key activities of the Network underpinned this primary objective:
- In conjunction with the E.A. and local stakeholders, to identify knowledge gaps which could make an effective contribution to achieving “good ecological status” within the Thames River Basin District.
- To map the research community around the Thames River Basin District in order to ascertain which scientists may have been able to contribute to the resolution of these knowledge gaps.
- To run a series of workshops to address specific knowledge gaps.
- To develop a web-portal with a searchable database to allow local stakeholders to identify expertise and scientists to identify research project partners.
- To establish a networking community (forum) on the web portal where stakeholders could post questions or requests for collaboration and scientists could search for research project partners.