"Assuring good quality water supply is a major concern in Europe. Wastewater treatment is carried out in order to minimise environmental impact, as well as to provide an alternative source of potable water. Unfortunately, currently available treatments based on physico-chemical or biological processes are limited, since they are unable to efficiently remove recalcitrant xenobiotic substances commonly present in chemical industry wastewaters. As a consequence, EC legislation is becoming more stringent, further reducing dumping limits of hazardous chemicals from effluents, requiring ever increasing investments in decontamination. In this context, SME consortium members have identified the need to develop new cost-efficient water decontamination technology to comply with EU regulations. The WATERPLASMA project aims at developing an innovative decontamination process based on a one atmosphere uniform glow discharge (""OAUGD"") plasma reactor that makes possible to eliminate recalcitrant molecules without the need of chemicals or filters or that result in residual materials. The commercial objective of the project is to scale-up a reactor based on discharge technologies to remove toxic organic molecules from water. The system will be applicable to any industry producing water mixed with toxic organic substances in concentrations that cannot be disposed off in effluents. Initial targeted industries are pharmaceutical and personal care SMES using solvents and managing wastewaters with high organic loads, nevertheless the potential market of the system can extend to other contaminants, even AOX, and to water disinfection. The project will focus on up-scaling of atmospheric glow discharge plasma reactor, achieving a continuous treatment module. Reaction chamber, power electronics design, process optimisation, chemical and toxicological analyses, and monitoring will ensure the resulting wastewater decontamination and will broaden knowledge about plasma decontamination."