United Utilities has opened entries to its third innovation accelerator event that nurtures new businesses and ideas.
The programme gives participants a chance to develop and test-drive their product or service at the company’s labs over a 12-week period and potentially enter into a commercial partnership.
The Innovation Lab, which began in 2018, has collaborated with 15 companies and brought new entrants to the sector as well as creating jobs in the region.
Ideas that have come from the event included developing artificial intelligence (AI) to find leaks and the use of UV LEDs to disinfect drinking water.
United Utilities chief executive Steve Mogford said previous Labs have delivered “staggering” results both for the company and the wider sector as it brings supply chain companies closer.
He said: “We think it’s a differentiator in the sector and is now firmly part of the way we do business as a company. Thanks to previous labs, we have brought some of the best ideas into our operations, established relationships with suppliers that might never otherwise come our way and are delivering better and lower cost service to our customers.”
The competition will have four categories:
Systems thinking, which will cover interconnected systems and equipment such as monitoring and control of assets and operational control as well as data and information. Particular areas of interest will be machine intelligence and automation; sensors and connected devices; digital twins and visualisation; and data and analytics.
Circular economy and natural systems that will explore how natural solutions can be used to solve problems in water, wastewater and bio-resources, and how natural solutions could be used in place of traditional building methods.
Future of water, which will cover how technologies can help United Utilities meet the regulatory goals set by Ofwat for the next five years and beyond. Areas of interest include demand management, leakage reduction, sewer flooding prevention, and improving resilience of assets and infrastructure.
Finally, a Wildcard category will allow new companies to present any technology that could assist United Utilities in transforming any aspect of the business to benefit customers, employees, communities, environment or other stakeholders.
Applications open from 13 July and successful candidates will be invited to pitch their ideas.
Northumbrian Water was due to run its own annual Innovation Festival this week but was forced to postpone the event until later in the year and move it to a virtual platform.