Judges named for second year of water innovation contests

Ofwat has revealed the panel of judges for the second year of its innovation competitions, which will award grants of up to £10 million for participants to develop solutions to common sector-wide challenges.

The support is being made available as part of the £200 million Water Innovation Fund created by Ofwat in the 2019 price review to encourage collaboration and provide a chance to explore non-business as usual approaches to problems such as achieving net zero, managing future water supplies, improving and protecting the environment.

For the second year, Ofwat has renamed the two parts of the competition, this time to the Catalyst Stream, which is offering grants of between £100,000 and £1 million, and the Transform Stream, which is offering grants of between £1 million and £10 million.

Judges on the Catalyst Stream panel include Alison Austin, board member of CCW; Tony Conway director of British Water; Myrtle Dawes, director at Oil & Gas Technology Centre; Lila Thompson, chief executive of British Water; Nicole Ballantyne of the Knowledge Transfer Network; Adam Scorer, chief executive at National Energy Action Wales; and Dragan Savic who is the chief executive at KWR Water.

The Transform Stream panel will feature Jane Davidson the pro-vice chancellor at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David; Steven Steer consultant and ex-head of data at Ofgem; Anusha Shah, director resilient cities at Arcadis; Sharon Darcy, director of Sustainability First; Paul O’Callaghan founder of BlueTech Research; Niki Roach, president of the Chartered Institution of Water; Frank Rogalla, director of innovation at Aqualia; and Tony Conway, professor and former executive director at United Utilities.

John Russell, senior director at Ofwat said: “Since we launched the Water Innovation Fund a year ago, the partnerships formed across industry have resulted in truly exciting projects that can make a massive difference to customers, the environment and the operational resilience of the water sector. I’m pleased to announce our judges for the second Water Breakthrough Challenge today who will bring their knowledge and expertise to bear on what is set to be a very competitive judging process.”

Entries to the Catalyst Stream closed in December, bringing 58 organisations together under 18 entries across the industry, academia and supply chains. The successful projects will be unveiled in March.

Entries for the Transform Stream have until 8 February to apply ahead of winners being announced in April.

The innovation fund will run each year between 2020-25 but with projects expected to continue beyond that date. In its inaugural year, the competition allocated funding to a joint bid from all English and Welsh water companies for a water centre of excellence. This launched online in December as Spring – a one-stop shop for innovators and companies to connect.