News – Water Breakthrough Challenge
November 3, 2021
Tips from Breakthrough 1 Assessors and Judges, and from Science Practice, on writing a strong entry
Having announced the 11 winning entries of the Innovation in Water Challenge (IWC) in April and, more recently, the nine winners of the first Water Breakthrough Challenge (‘Breakthrough 1’), it is fair to say that 2021 has already seen excellent results from the Ofwat Innovation Fund. Novel partnerships have been formed, innovative solutions and approaches have been put forward to tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing the water sector, and new ways of working are being trialled. With the second round of the Water Breakthrough Challenge (‘Breakthrough 2’) underway, we look forward to seeing more exciting entries from water companies and their partners.
Reflecting on the first round of the Breakthrough Challenge, we’ve come up with seven tips to entrants to complement the advice we shared in May 2021 in our blog Six Tips for entering. These tips have been collated with feedback from our technical assessors, judges, and our new entrant support partner, Science Practice, who have recently kicked off their support with a helpful workshop on writing a strong entry.
The first and foremost tip we gave in our first blog on the subject was to Form partnerships, partnerships… and more partnerships, and we have definitely seen this happen more and more in IWC and Breakthrough 1.
While entering in partnership is not a requirement in any of the Fund’s competitions, the quality of partnerships can be decisive. An entry delivered by two partners collaborating for the first time on a transformative solution has more chances to be appreciated than an entry with ten partners who do not push the boundaries of business as usual.
New partners with less familiar voices can give your entry a fresh perspective on a well-known issue and bring the experience and skills that might be required to deliver your innovative entry successfully. After all, innovation is frequently born from collaboration; look at new partnerships as opportunities to better deliver positive impact within and outside the sector.
What other solutions to the problem you set out to solve could exist elsewhere? Exploring what others are doing can be a fruitful way of delving deeper into an issue and connecting the dots. There may be valuable learnings to build on and opportunities to bring new ideas to the water sector that have been worked on elsewhere. At the same time, it might help you make the case as to why business as usual can’t help you achieve your solution.
A lot of the challenges the water sector is grappling with have a lot in common with what is happening in other sectors – for example, digital, logistics or retail banking, to name a few. Stronger entries in Breakthrough 1 commonly engaged in horizon scanning. When writing your entry, make sure you articulate how you are engaging with previous or current work on the issue in the UK and beyond.
If you’re entering Breakthrough 2, chances are you are working to solve one of the big challenges facing the water sector with an entry that has a huge impact potential for customers, society and/or the environment.
Make sure you use evidence at the core of the need or opportunity: why is it important? Why has the need not been met yet? How are you going to make a difference? You are welcome to carry out your own research or draw on external sources to answer these questions.
What is it that motivates you? Make sure that that passion comes out… ground your entry in the difference that you’re making.
How can you maximise the impact you can deliver for the funding you request? When planning your budget, never underestimate the power of efficiency: presenting an efficient and realistic cost breakdown can reassure assessors that the spending request is justified.
In building your budget:
Secondly, consider what financial and/or in-kind support you, your partners and even third parties can bring to the entry to maximise the value you will deliver to customers, society and the environment.
Finding opportunities to make cost efficiencies and including value-add in-kind support can strengthen your case for showing your entry is viable and demonstrates good use of customer money compared to other entries.
It might seem too early to plan for sector-wide adoption of your innovative solution, but sharing how you intend to support implementation at scale can demonstrate your commitment to the Fund’s innovation enablers. This is a critical part of the project you will build, as it’s where you get the chance to increase the impact of your innovation.
Make sure you explain the potential for your solution to be adopted at scale and your plan if your entry is successful. Identify any challenges and barriers you may face immediately and in the longer term, and make detailed plans for sharing across the sector.
It’s ok if you can’t scale across the sector yourself – but think about how you may overcome barriers to support others to do so.
No matter what you are working on, there will be people who directly experience the need you are trying to address in their daily lives. These people can provide a rich source of ideas and inspiration for practical solutions, so why not try speaking to them about your entry?
Breakthrough 1 assessors and judges were impressed by entries that included end-users in research, service design and prototype testing. Demonstrating stakeholder engagement in your entry shows that your proposed solution is based on what might work for those involved in making this succeed.
If you are not sure where to start, take a look at how participatory futures methods could support your entry.
Breakthrough innovation is all about taking risks and managing uncertainty. In your entry, try to recognise risks and opportunities proportionately. Pay particular attention to the risks you can’t control, such as that the sector won’t take up the solution. Make the case as to why these risks will be worth taking: how you will maximise benefits, even if your proposed solution doesn’t work?
A strong project plan can help manage uncertainties and ensure the project progresses efficiently. In the first round, project management plans that included appropriate stage gates and relevant key performance indicators for each phase had an edge on the rest of the pack. To start, identify your key milestones, and frame your delivery plan around these. Later down the line, reaching those milestones will help you monitor your progress towards success.
While risks and uncertainties can spell out failure, make sure your entry includes realistic plans to share the learnings widely to benefit the whole sector and beyond. Being open about what you are trying to do is a great way to attract others to the conversation: many risks and their mitigation have already been managed in other sectors. You could end up recruiting a new partner to give a unique edge to your next try!
We said there were seven tips – but here’s a bonus one: view failure as an opportunity.
The Water Breakthrough Challenge is a competition where only those entries that best meet the assessment criteria win funding. But an unsuccessful entry doesn’t necessarily mean an unworthy project.
Failure can be an opportunity to engage in conversations within and outside the sector and create connections where there weren’t any. It might lead to pursuing other funding routes or identify additional collaborators to come on board to make the project idea a reality. Or you may come back even stronger by re-entering a future round of the Water Breakthrough Challenge…
Whatever the outcome, we wish the best of luck to all entrants. If you are one, don’t forget that for Breakthrough 2, we have partnered with Science Practice to offer workshops and 1-to-1 support for water companies and their partners, focused on submitting clear and compelling entries. Head over to the Entrant Support page to watch the recording of their first workshop, “How to write a strong entry”, and to book in one-to-one support (open to lead entrants and any partners they invite).
