Innovation foundation Nesta, supported by consultancy firms Arup and Isle Utilities will be the delivery partners for Ofwat’s innovation competitions.
Nesta as the lead organisation will run the competitions that Ofwat hopes will bring “transformative changes” for the water and wastewater sectors.
The £200 million fund and competition was announced as part of PR19 to encourage collaboration and drive innovation in the sector to address shared challenges.
After a competitive tender process, Ofwat selected Nesta, Arup and Isle to help design, monitor and administer the fund and competitions.
The first round of the competition will launch in January with a Dragons Den style challenge, followed by the main competition in the spring.
John Russell, senior director at Ofwat, said: “Partnerships and collaboration are at the heart of the competitions. We expect water companies, innovators and other interested parties to be proactive in finding partnerships now. We welcome a full range of participants, including retailers, academia, supply chain, innovators and others to build partnerships with water companies to access the fund”.
Nesta has experience running innovation competitions in both regulated sectors and environmental protection. Together with the sector knowledge and experience of Arup and Isle Utilities, Ofwat said the partners will have access to a network of innovations to deliver the competitions.
The fund is open to water and wastewater companies as well as new entrants. Other parties can access the funding via collaborative bids.
The innovation in water challenge is designed as a platform for supply chain businesses to pitch to large companies.
Big strategic projects involving collaboration between water companies and other stakeholders can bid on projects up to £40 million in the main contest.
Nesta’s Chris Gorst said: “The water sector has a crucial role to play in tackling many of the defining challenges of our era: attaining net zero, adapting to climate change, building long term resilience, protecting and enhancing our environment, accommodating demographic change. These demand bold new approaches to innovation and collaboration in the water sector which we hope to catalyse through these competitions”.
Ian Gray, director at Arup, said: “With climate change, a global pandemic and many other challenges testing the resilience of the water industry, now is the time to challenge current thinking and drive transformational change.”
Isle’s managing director Dr Benjamin Tam said: “The fund has the potential to act as the catalyst for the large-scale adoption of new ideas and transformative solutions. This matches perfectly with Isle’s mission to accelerate innovation within the water sector”.