🏆 Discovery: 10 winners announced!

Ten bold, novel innovations from the first ever Water Discovery Challenge have been announced as winners!

Discover the winning innovations

Introducing the Ofwat Innovation Fund

Ofwat, the Water Services Regulation Authority for England and Wales, has established a £200 million Innovation Fund to grow the water sector’s capacity to innovate, enabling it to better meet the evolving needs of customers, society and the environment.

The Innovation Fund, delivered in partnership with Challenge Works (formerly known as Nesta Challenges) and supported by Arup and Isle Utilities, is designed to complement Ofwat’s existing approach to innovation and to help deliver against Ofwat’s strategy which highlights the role of innovation in meeting many of the challenges the sector faces.

Learn more about the Ofwat Innovation Fund
& its impact in the 2023 Annual Report:

 

The competitions

Through the Fund, Ofwat are delivering a series of innovation competitions that water companies, in partnerships with others, can enter. We expect different rounds of the competitions to run until 2025, and Ofwat are currently consulting on a proposal to continue the Fund until 2030, but our goal is that the Innovation Fund’s impact will continue well beyond even this.

The fourth round of the Water Breakthrough Challenge (‘Breakthrough 4’), launched on 5 September 2023. Approximately £40 million in funding is available for innovative water company-led solutions that will bring benefits to water customers, society and the environment.

The Water Discovery Challenge has announced 10 winning innovations. Discovery supports early-stage innovation from anyone, with no requirement for organisations to partner with a water company to enter. Learn about the 10 cutting-edge initiatives which clinched the grand prize.

The 16 winners of Breakthrough 3 were announced in May 2023, sharing in approximately £40 million.

Information on our earlier challenges is available on our past competitions page, and details of the initiatives we’ve funded to date can be found on our winners page.

To receive the latest updates from the Fund, including upcoming competition entry requirements and key dates, sign up to our newsletter.

Support to innovate

As well as directly supporting innovative initiatives through its innovation competitions, the Innovation Fund aims to provide resources and support to help the sector innovate.

📣 Blogs, updates and innovation case studies can be found on our News & Views page

📅Information on past and upcoming events can be found on our Events page

🤝🏽Support for organisations looking to collaborate with the water sector is available on our Find a Partner page

Find out more about the Fund

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