Ofwat considers extending innovation competition

Ofwat has proposed running its innovation competition beyond the original five year timeframe and changing rules around background intellectual property (IP) in a new consultation.

The £200 million competition began as part of PR19 to encourage the water sector to collaborate on developing ideas that could solve shared sector challenges around net zero, managing demand and supply, reducing leakage and improving services for billpayers.

More than £43 million was awarded to entries in the first year of the scheme and entries have been submitted for year two, which is divided into two parts depending on the size and scale of the proposed project.

The regulator is now seeking input to make the most of the remaining allocated funds by attracting an even more diverse range of sectors to partner with water companies. It said it wants to hear from individuals, companies and representative bodies across academia, construction, the UK’s space sector, chemical and pharmaceuticals, the digital sector, agriculture and fisheries, the energy sector, the marine sector, manufacturing and logistics, retail banking and fintech sectors.

Ofwat plans to run the challenge again this year, in 2023 and again in either 2024 or 2025. It said it could potentially extend the competition beyond then and also wants to make it easier for participants from outside the sector to enter.

The regulator has proposed an annual £4 million contest for early stage ideas in or outside of the sector that would not require a partnership with a water company to enter. It plans to continue the main competition but change the rules to allow the licencing of background IP.

Ofwat said the smaller of the two streams – for entries seeking £250k to £1 million – would not require water company partnership. It proposed making around £30 million available each in the larger stream that offer projects funding of up to £10 million.

The deadline for responses to the consultation is 17 May.