News – Water Breakthrough Challenge
October 3, 2022
03 Oct 2022
The third round of the Water Breakthrough Challenge (‘Breakthrough 3’) launches today, with approximately £38 million available for innovative entries boosting collaboration in the water sector in England and Wales and delivering long-lasting benefits to water customers, society and the environment.
After the success of the first two rounds, which saw £61.5 million awarded to a range of transformative projects, we expect to see more cutting-edge entries into Breakthrough 3 aligned with the Fund’s strategic innovation themes.
Whether you have entered before or you’re submitting an entry for the first time this autumn, in this blog we share everything you wanted to know about entering Breakthrough 3, from competition details to support available to entrants.
And if this wasn’t enough, join us on Wednesday 5 October at 11 am to run through the competition process with the Breakthrough 3 delivery team, and ask all your competition-related questions live!
Catalyst stream
Entries will open at 12 noon on 3 October 2022 and close at 12 noon GMT on Thursday 8 December 2022.
Winners will be announced in April 2023.
Transform stream
Stage 1 entries will open at 12 noon BST on Monday 3 October 2022, and close at 12 noon GMT on Wednesday 9 November 2022.
Stage 2 entries will open at 12 noon GMT on Thursday 8 December, and close at 12 noon GMT on Thursday 2 February 2023. Please note, Stage 2 is invite-only.
Winners will be announced in late May 2023.
Breakthrough 3 is open to water companies in England and Wales and their partners and retains the two streams from Breakthrough 2: the £8 million Catalyst stream and the £30 million Transform 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.
Entries to the Catalyst stream can request between £150,000 and £2 million in funding. In Breakthrough 3, we have increased the amount of funding which can be awarded in the Catalyst stream from £1 million to £2 million, to ensure the process for each entry is proportionate to the value for entries.
Another useful tweak to the process now allows water companies to devolve management of their entries to the Catalyst stream to their partners. This includes drafting and submission of the entry itself.
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.
Entries to the Transform steam can request funding between £2 million and £10 million[1] .
The Transform stream runs on a 2-stage process: a Stage 1 screening followed by additional questions asked in the full entry period, Stage 2, which is invite-only.
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.
If you are a water company, or are working in partnership with a water company, the amount of funding you are seeking should determine which stream of Breakthrough 3 you enter.
The entry process and entrant requirements are reflective of this: while the Catalyst stream presents a single assessment stage, entrants to the Transform stream should be prepared to provide a greater amount of detail at Stage 2, and tangible benefits to customers, society and/or the environment within the delivery period if successful.
For the first time, in Breakthrough 3 we are trialling live pitches to judges in the entry process. Judges will also have the opportunity to ask questions to entrants relating to their entries.
Similarly to the previous rounds, both streams of the competition maintain a requirement for 10% financial contribution by the entry partners.
Following intellectual property right (IPR) trial in Round 2, Breakthrough 3 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 through the competition (foreground IPR) will still need to be licensed to water companies in England and Wales royalty-free.
Entrants to Breakthrough 3 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.
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.
Browse the up-to-date list of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) and quickly find an answer to your Breakthrough 3-related query.
We continue to run our popular one-to-one surgery sessions, giving entrants an opportunity to ask questions about the entry process. The aim of this service is to help clarify information available publicly and support in understanding the guidance currently available.
We’re teaming up again with Science Practice to provide support on the writing in your entry. Coaching and guidance will be provided through webinars, one-to-one coaching calls, and review of draft entries. Find out more on the Entrant Support page.
Over the pilot period, we asked judges and assessors to share their top tips for entering the Fund’s competitions. Get inspired by their advice and read the first ‘Six tips for entering’ here and find more insightful nuggets in ‘Seven more tips’ here.
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.
On Wednesday 5 October at 11 am BST we hosted the 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.
