Ofwat Innovation Fund

Water Breakthrough challenge 3 (‘Breakthrough 3’)

Ofwat have been operating the innovation fund since January 2021 as a pilot period and are encouraged by the level of interest, collaboration, as well as the quality and types of entries seen to date.

Over the next three years (2022-25), Ofwat have identified some key areas where further evolution of the fund could be beneficial:

• supporting more early-stage ideas through the innovation fund;
• allowing innovators to have greater access to the fund;
• encouraging a wider range of innovations to come forward, including from other sectors;
• reducing barriers to involvement with the fund;
• facilitating new relationships and collaborations across the sector and from other sectors.

Catalyst stream – aims to encourage new ways of working that go beyond business-as-usual innovation practices in the water sector, in particular, increasing and improving collaboration and building partnerships from within and outside the water sector.  This is a single-stage process.

• entries open at 12 noon BST on Monday 3 October 2022 and close at 12 noon GMT on Thursday 8 December 2022;
• there is circa £8 million available in 2022-23, with entrants able to bid for between £150,000 and £2 million;
• requires lead entrants to be a water company. Any organisation can be a partner. Lead entrants can devolve project management responsibilities to partners;
• requires a 10% mandatory financial contribution to enter;
• will allow background IPR to be licensed, plus maintain the option for entrants to propose an alternative IPR approach. Foreground IPR must be shared with water companies in England and Wales.

Transform stream – aims to spark ambitious innovation and enable new approaches and ways of working, equipping the water sector to address the big challenges it faces, driving far-reaching and long-lasting benefits to customers, society and the environment across England and Wales now and into the future. This is a two-stage process.

• entries for Stage 1 open at 12 noon BST on Monday 3 October 2022 and close it at 12 noon GMT on Wednesday 9 November 2022.
• Ofwat will open stage 2 to invited entries at 12 noon (GMT) 8 December 2022 and will close for entries at 12:00 noon (GMT) 2 February 2023.
• there is circa £30 million available in 2022-23, with entrants able to bid for between £2 million and £10 million;
• requires lead entrants to be a water company and any organisation can be a partner;
• requires a 10% mandatory financial contribution to enter;
• allow background IPR to be licensed, and require that foreground IPR must be shared with water companies in England and Wales;
• Maintain the option for entrants to propose an alternative IPR approach.

The Water Discovery Challenge: this competition aims to support more early-stage ideas and encourage direct involvement of innovators with the fund. 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 with a straightforward entry process that is proportionate to the value and risk of these initiatives;

• there will be no requirement for organisations to partner and / or receive sponsorship from a water company to enter the competition;
• 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.
• 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
• there will be no mandatory 10% financial contribution requirement;
• there will be no IPR licensing requirements applied to winning entries in the
  competition.

For either the Catalyst, Transform or Discovery, Anglian Water are looking to support applications that align with our values and business & customer needs. This support could be helping to write bids, providing funding contributions, supporting with research and giving access to facility and testing support. Once submitted, applications will be reviewed internally by subject matter experts in Anglian Water and the Innovation teams.

For more information, please take a look at Ofwat’s Decision document.