SE-ON-202100-6420-1 Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management The design grant is drafted for a period of 12 months. The focus will be concept development with the primary aim to design a proposal for cooperation 2027-2029 with Ukraine on water resources management together with Ukrainian partners. These could include regional and local governments, universities, the State Agency for Water Resources, as well as water utilities and irrigation boards responsible for water infrastructure in specific areas. Already during the design study process, we are laying the groundwork for knowledge exchange between Swedish and Ukrainian water and wastewater utilities. Although the scale is not the same, Swedish utilities are also grappling with a maintenance backlog, creating space for knowledge exchange between Swedish VA utilities and Ukrainian counterparts, including shared challenges (e.g., aging infrastructure). For instance, utilities are currently developing innovative solutions to address infrastructure-related challenges in a cost-effective way, for example through increased digitalization. Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management 3175145 3175145