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Ofwat has unveiled details of the criteria for the main competition in its innovation fund, aimed at getting initiatives off the ground that water companies would not otherwise be able to explore or invest in.
The first round of the £200 million competition begins next year to encourage collaboration and drive innovation in the sector to address shared challenges. From January a Dragons Den style competition will launch, followed by the main competition known as the Innovation in Water Challenge in the spring.
Ofwat has revealed that intellectual property rights (IPR) have been separated into background and foreground IPR.
All IPR that exists before the submission bid to competition is counted as background IPR with all rights retained by the participant. Ofwat said an appropriate form of licence should be granted for the sole purpose of the project to allow it to go ahead.
IPR developed using competition funds will be foreground IPR and must be made available royalty-free to other water companies. This would apply to submissions involving retailers and third parties as well as water companies.
Royalties earned from foreground IPR will be shared with water company customers proportionately to the customer contribution from bills. Foreground IPR royalties earned by other third parties in other sectors in England and Wales, do not need to be shared with water company customers.
Project participants can keep foreground IPR royalties earned from any sector outside England and Wales. Alternative IPR arrangements that demonstrate how customers will be benefit may be included in submissions.
Ofwat said companies are encouraged to submit multiple entries but cautioned that it was unlikely funding would be granted on more than three submissions from the same lead applicant.
Funding will be awarded to the lead applicant and it will be up to the teams to distribute appropriately.
Ofwat said entry is confidential, however a condition of accepting funding will be publicity of the project.
Application forms will be available online from 18 January.
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