Water Discovery Challenge

The Water Discovery Challenge (‘Discovery’) is a £4 million competition for bold and ingenious innovation that can help solve the biggest challenges facing the water sector today and in the future.  Discovery aims to accelerate the discovery, development and adoption of promising innovations by the water sector. It aims to achieve this by directly supporting organisations with innovative propositions and facilitating their engagement with water companies.

Discovery is a 18-month competition that brings together a blend of financial and non-financial support to support innovations to launch and succeed in the water sector in England and Wales. Finalist and winning teams retain all intellectual property rights and equity in their organisation. Entries can be entered into the Challenge confidentially.   

Innovator Journey

  • The Water Discovery Challenge opened for entries on 25 January 2023 at 12 noon (GMT) and will close on 5 April 2023 at 12 noon (BST). The online entry form is available here.

    A range of webinars available to support you to learn about the water sector and enter.

  • Entrants are required to meet the eligibility criteria as set out in the terms and conditions, and all eligible entries will be reviewed by assessors against each of the four assessment criteria. Following the assessment, a shortlist of entries will be reviewed by sector reviewers, made up of representatives from regional water companies in England and Wales. Ofwat will make the final decision on which entries will be selected as Finalist.

    Finalists should expect to receive payment of funds in July 2023.

  • Up to 20 Finalists will be announced by the end of June 2023. These entries will enter the Finalist Stage which runs from June to November 2023, with an award of up to £50,000 and a 5-month package of support, including support to produce a Development Plan for submission to the following stage.

    Mentors will work directly with Finalist, providing bespoke support and guidance, insights into the water sector, as well as feedback on Finalist’s innovation and its demand within the wider sector while also signposting to other stakeholders or useful resources.

    Finalists will be required to submit a Development Plan in November 2023. Further details, including the exact submission date, will be provided to Finalists.

  • All Finalists will once again go through an Eligibility Screen, ensuring that Finalists still meet the eligibility criteria.

    Development plans will go through Assessment and Sector Review concurrently. Development plans will be reviewed by sector reviewers, made up of representatives from regional water companies in England and Wales and assessors will review Development Plans against the assessment criteria.

    Winners should expect to receive their first payment of funds in February 2024.

  • Up to 10 Winners will be announced by February 2023. These 10 entries will enter the Winners Stage which runs from February to August 2024, with an award of up to £450,000 and a 7-month package of support.

    Mentors will work directly with Winning teams, providing bespoke support and guidance, insights into the water sector, as well as feedback on Finalist’s innovation and its demand within the wider sector while also signposting to other stakeholders or useful resources.

    Winners will need to meet reasonable monitoring and impact reporting requirements from the Challenge. These will be simple and proportionate to the level of funding awarded.

How it works

Discovery will run for approximately 18 months in total and follow a two-stage process for funding and support.

  • Stage 1 will open for entries on Wednesday 25 January 2023 for approximately 10 weeks, with successful entrants confirmed by Ofwat by late Spring 2023.
  • Following stage 1 assessment, 15-20 entries will receive seed grants of up to £50,000. There will be a Seed Stage of approximately 5 months followed by a secondary entry submission and assessment period of approximately 2 months.
  • Finally, up to 10 entries will be awarded up to £450,000 each in development grants, which they will be expected to utilise within an approximate 7-month development stage.

Across the two support stages, water companies work with entrants providing general water sector insights and advice, specific feedback on the innovation or solution in development, as well as supporting entries develop and implement plans for future trialling and testing, further development if it requires longer term development or testing and is seeking additional funding opportunities (potentially through the Fund) at the conclusion of the competition as well as support and guidance on live implementation of an entry.

At the conclusion of the competition, successful entrants will have worked directly with the water companies for around 12 months, accelerating the development of their solution and increasing the potential for adoption.

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