Developing innovative, circular solutions for wastewater treatment sludge

INCLUE Project Objectives

INCLUE will set up the first European doctoral training network on developing innovative, circular solutions for the treatment of sludge containing pollutants.

INCLUE will train 11 creative and entrepreneurially-minded DCs via an international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary research training program in the field of sludge pre-treatment combined with state-of-the-art bioconversion techniques and multi-level toxicity assessment, for the effective removal and/or recovery of both hazardous and valuable compounds from municipal and industrial sludges.

The success of the program is guaranteed via a unique combination of state-of-the-art PhD research, intersectoral secondments, international mobility and interdisciplinary platform-wide courses.

Research Objectives

Develop and optimise sustainable techniques to enhance the properties and composition of sludge through removal of (in)organic pollutants to eliminate any adverse effects for sludge application (i) in a subsequent bioconversion process or (ii) directly as a fertiliser on land.

Develop augmented fermentative bioconversion processes to produce renewable chemicals and fuels, and to recover nutrients from municipal and industrial sludges, potentially combined with pre-treatment technologies.

Create tools to assess the overall environmental performance of treated sludges towards toxicity, pollutant soil dynamics and agricultural
fertilising value in a combined decision support tool (WP3) for 5 different types of pollutants: pesticides, endocrine disrupting compounds, heavy metals, PFAS and antibiotics. Develop a socio-economic evaluation tool, to support decision-making and societal acceptance.

INCLUE: an interdisciplinary project and a truly intersectoral and international consortium

INCLUE RESEARCH FOCUS

WP1

Upgrading sludge properties via innovative treatment processes

WP2

Renewable chemicals and fuels production via augmented sludge bioconversion

WP3

Eco-Impact Assessment

News & Blog

Meet the Researchers Behind INCLUE: Sara Cvetković and Tiago Martins Share Their Journey

June 5, 2026

In a newly released video, two INCLUE doctoral candidates, Sara Cvetković and Tiago Martins, share insights into their research activities, their experiences within the network, and the opportunities provided by international and intersectoral collaboration. Sara is conducting her doctoral research at Watchfrog, one of INCLUE’s industrial partners, where she contributes to developing innovative approaches to assessing the effects of contaminants, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Tiago, PhD candidate at KU Leuven and Nijhuis Saur Industries, recently completed a two-month secondment with the Watchfrog team, gaining hands-on experience in an industrial research environment

Conference participation at ESS19

May 29, 2026

From 25th to 29th of May, I had the pleasure to participate in the ESS19 conference in Chania, Greece. Biannually, experts in sonochemistry gather to share their newly gained knowledge, expertise, and advancements in the field. Here, I had the pleasure to show my research with the presentation “Frequency-dependent sonochemical degradation of emerging PFAS in water”, in which I displayed part of the results obtained during my secondment in Oxford during the summer of 2025. I focused on the influence of frequency on the degradation of PFAS and how to

SETAC Europe 36th Annual Meeting, 17 – 21 May 2026, Maastricht, The Netherlands

May 21, 2026

Who are you asking? A Week at SETAC Maastricht

May 21, 2026

Mid-May, I presented my research at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Europe 36th Annual Meeting in Maastricht. First, in a short presentation, and then beside my poster, titled “Comparative life‑cycle and cultural assessment of anaerobic digestion with and without thermal‑hydrolysis pretreatment”. For the length of a coffee-fueled poster session, I got to argue about something I’ve been quietly obsessing over for months: how much of a “sustainability” verdict is really about the world and how much of it is about us. The poster represented part of my

Tiago Martins (DC3) named “Researcher of the Month” by MCAA Spain-Portugal Chapter

May 20, 2026

We are pleased to share that Tiago Martins (DC3), PhD researcher within the INCLUE project, has been selected as “Researcher of the Month” (May) by a co-joint project of the MCAA Spain-Portugal Chapter and the MCAA Brazil Chapter. This recognition follows his earlier distinction as MSCA Fellow of the Month at EU level by the MCAA Association, highlighting the international visibility and relevance of his work within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) community. Tiago’s research focuses on transforming wastewater sludge from a hazardous byproduct into a valuable resource. Using electrochemical

From Student to Guest Lecturer: Returning to the Classroom That Shaped Me

May 19, 2026

A few years ago, I was sitting in this room as a student of the MSc in Environmental Engineering (Sanitary Engineering specialization) at Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (NOVA School of Science and Technology), trying to imagine what my future in this field could look like. Today, now as a PhD candidate, I returned, this time to give a lecture to those same students. After two years away from direct teaching (since my time at Shanghai University), coming back to a classroom reminded me