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Everything you need to know about Breakthrough 5

NewsNews – News & UpdatesWater Breakthrough Challenge

Everything you need to know about Breakthrough 5

September 9, 2024

The Water Breakthrough Challenge 5 (‘Breakthrough 5’) is now open for entries, with Ofwat calling on water companies in England and Wales to propose bold and innovative projects to tackle some of the water sector’s biggest challenges. Read on for more information, or head to the Breakthrough 5 page to get involved. 

Read more about Breakthrough 5

To date, Ofwat’s £200 million Innovation Fund has awarded more than £150 million to 93 projects across England and Wales that are pioneering solutions to improve the water sector’s environmental impact – from converting treated sewage sludge into gas, biochar and ash ‘stones’ to installing SuDs to help with flooding issues in London. 

Since 2020, the Water Breakthrough Challenges have seen water companies form new cross-sector collaborations with utility providers, universities, charities, SMEs, tech giants, local and foreign governments and community organisations. 

Previous winners have included robots that patrol water and wastewater pipes to pinpoint cracks, carbon capture technology to convert CO2 into household products, seagrass meadow restoration off the Welsh coast, and projects to power city buses with gas extracted from sewage. 

Ofwat will award up to £40 million to even more innovative and forward-thinking water company-led initiatives in Water Breakthrough Challenge 5. It encourages entrants to put forward ideas never seen before; that encourage the testing and the rollout of new innovations for the sector, with a big focus on sharing knowledge widely.   

Since 2020, the Innovation Fund has awarded funding to 93 innovative projects that can transform services for customers, communities and the environment. From sewage sludge to leaks, smart water neighbourhoods to supporting vulnerable customers, these partnership-delivered projects are helping to solve the big challenges we face.

Collaboration is at the core of the innovation fund – among water companies and with organisations outside of our sector. They foster new thinking, new approaches to problems, and result in solutions that may otherwise not have come about.

In this fifth Water Breakthrough Challenge, we’re awarding up to £40 million to highly collaborative projects that will make even greater progress in solving our sector’s challenges and create a positive legacy for customers and our environment

Whether you have entered before or you’re submitting an entry for the first time, in this blog we share everything you need to know about entering Breakthrough 5, from competition details to support available to entrants. 

Join our launch webinar on tomorrow, Tuesday 10 September at 11.30 am to run through the competition process with the Fund delivery team, and ask all your competition-related questions live! 

Register for the webinar

Partnerships must be led by water companies in England or Wales, including New Appointments and Variations (NAVs). Entry partners must provide the remaining 10% of the entry’s total financial costs as a mandatory 10% financial contribution.

Entries should focus their impact to one or more of the Fund’s innovation themes.

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Monday 9 September at 12pm
Catalyst and Transform Streams
Entries open
Water through the brick openings of Craig Goch Dam
Monday 30 September at 12pm
Transform stream, stage 1
Entries close
Water through the brick openings of Craig Goch Dam
Monday 18 November at 12pm
Transform stream, stage 2
Entries open (invite-only)
Water pours over a dam
Monday 6 January at 12pm
Catalyst stream
Entries close
Water through the brick openings of Craig Goch Dam
Monday 13 January at 12pm
Transform stream, stage 2
Entries close (invite-only)
A close up shot of a sparkler
15 May
Catalyst and Transform streams
Winners announcement
  • 2024
  • 2024
  • 2024
  • 2025
  • 2025
  • 2025

Key Dates

Water pours over a dam

Catalyst stream

  • Entries will open at 12pm (BST) on 9 September 2024 and close at 12pm (GMT) on 6 January 2025.
  • Winners will be announced on 15 May 2025
Water through the brick openings of Craig Goch Dam

Transform stream

  • Stage 1 entries will open at 12pm (BST) on 9 September 2024 and close at 12pm (BST) on 30 September 2024
  • Stage 2 entries will open at 12pm (GMT) on 18 November 2024 and close at 12pm (GMT) on 13 January 2025. Please note, Stage 2 is invite-only
  • Winners will be announced on 15 May 2025

Catalyst stream

The Catalyst stream welcomes entries that test new ways of working that go beyond business-as-usual innovation practices in the water sector, with a particular focus on increasing and improving collaboration and building partnerships from within and outside the water sector.

Individual entries to the Catalyst stream can request between £150,000 and £2 million in funding.

Water companies can devolve management of their entries to the Catalyst stream to their partners. This includes drafting and submission of the entry itself.

The timeline for the Catalyst stream can be seen in the graphic below.

Application timeline for Water Breakthrough 5 competition, Catalyst stream

Head over to the Catalyst stream page

Transform stream

The Transform stream aims to spark ambitious innovation and enable new approaches and ways of working, equipping the water sector to address the big challenges facing the sector, driving far-reaching and long-lasting benefits to customers, society and the environment across England and Wales now and into the future.

Individual entries to the Transform steam can request funding between £2 million and £10 million[1] .

The Transform stream has a 2-stage process, illustrated in the figure below.

Application timeline for Water Breakthrough 5 competition, Transform stream

Following feedback from water companies, we have made changes to the timelines to this year’s Transform Stream, as set out below:

  • Stage 1 of the Transform Stream opens on 9 September 2024 at 12 noon (BST) and closes on 30 September 2024 at 12 noon (BST).
  • Following the closing date on 30 September 2024, stage 1 entries will be checked for eligibility and undergo a screening assessment. Entrants will be invited to a live Q&A session with assessors to take place after the Stage 1 entry period has closed.
  • A diverse portfolio of entries that best meet the relevant assessment criteria will then be invited to submit a Stage 2 entry from 18 November 2024 at 12 noon (GMT). The Stage 2 entry period closes on 13 January 2025 at 12 noon (GMT).  Following the closing date, Stage 2 entries will be assessed.
  • In this round, there will be a single, unified judging panel reviewing entries to the Catalyst and Transform Streams. The aim is to increase visibility across the streams and to ensure a streamlined approach to portfolio recommendations based on gaps in the market and various levels of innovation risk.
  • The judging panel will convene in April 2025. Shortlisted entries will be invited to a live Q&A session with the judges during the judging days. Please note entrants will not be requested to pitch to the judges in this round.

As a further difference to the Catalyst stream, in the Transform stream entries should be of high strategic importance to water companies, and as such need to be coordinated and submitted by water companies themselves.

[1] Subject to certain conditions, Ofwat is open to accepting entries bidding for greater than £10 million. Please see Entry Requirements section of the Transform Entrant Handbook for more details.

Head over to the Transform stream page

The small print

Similarly to the previous rounds, both streams of the competition maintain a requirement for 10% financial contribution by the entry partners.

As in previous competitions, Breakthrough 5 reduces barriers to entry by allowing owners of background IPR to charge a licence fee at a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory rate. Intellectual property developed throught eh competition (foreground IPR) will still need to be licenced to water companies in England and Wales, royalty-free.

 

Need support with your entry?

Entrants to Breakthrough 5 can take advantage of a variety of support channels. These are designed to help with different aspects of the competition, from understanding the assessment process to writing a top-quality entry.

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Entrant Handbook

First stop: the Entrant Handbook. This represents your point of reference for anything regarding the competition rules, including eligibility, assessment criteria, entry questions and more. Depending on which stream you are entering, we strongly recommend you download a copy of the Catalyst stream Entrant Handbook, or the Transform stream Entrant Handbook.

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FAQs

Browse the up-to-date list of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) and quickly find an answer to your Breakthrough 5-related query.

Browse FAQS

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Surgery sessions

We continue to run our popular one-to-one surgery sessions during the entry period, giving entrants an opportunity to ask questions about the entry process. They aim to help clarify publicly available information and support entrants in understanding the guidance currently available.

Sign up for a 15-minute session with the delivery team, based on the competition stream you are expecting to enter:

Please note the delivery team will not be able to provide any guidance on entries themselves through the surgery sessions.

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Email contact

If you can’t find an answer through any of the above channels, you can always drop us a line at [email protected]. We strive to answer your queries within 2 working days during the entry period.

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Launch Webinar

On Tuesday 10 September at 11.30am, we will host a Launch Webinar and Live Q&A – a chance to run through the entry process, differences to the previous rounds, and ask anything you’d like to know about the competition.

The webinar recording and transcript will be made available after the event.

Register for the webinar