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Stellenbosch University Water Institute partnered with seven European partners in a Water-JPI project entitled “Operationalising the increase of water-use efficiency and resilience in irrigation (OPERA)”, aimed at better understanding farmers’ use (or non-use) of irrigation technology, and investigating ways to practically improve water efficiency. The Water-JPI (Water Challenges for a Changing World Joint Programme Initiative) is an initiative of the European Union aimed at promoting inter-governmental collaboration to address the global challenge of water availability. The Water Research Commission (WRC) joined the Water-JPI network as a funding partner in 2015 and as a full member in November 2017 (WaterJPI, 2019). The OPERA project is one of the first projects funded by the WRC as part of this international agreement. The WRC and Stellenbosch University entered into a normal WRC contracting agreement for the South African part of the OPERA project. As such, a reference group was appointed and a mid-term and final meeting of the reference group to review the work, took place.