Ofwat innovation fund headline decision document - approach to 2022-2025 and evaluation materials

This document sets out the headline decisions on the approach for the innovation fund for 2022-25. Ofwat's decisions have taken into consideration the feedback provided by stakeholders in their recent consultation and wider feedback received during the pilot period of the innovation fund.

Ofwat has published the headline decisions primarily to ensure the water sector has clarity on, and therefore can plan towards, the opening of their next competition, Water Breakthrough Challenge 3, which will launch in October 2022.

Decisions- Open access competition:

'We have received overwhelming support for the introduction of a new ‘open access’ competition.

We will be working up the detail of the new competition in the coming months, we can currently confirm the following:

• The competition will launch no earlier than 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;

• The competition will primarily target early-stage innovation, allocating circa £4 million annually;

• Up to £500,000 will be available for individual entries;

• There will be no mandatory 10% financial contribution requirement;

• There will be no IPR licensing requirements applied to winning entries in the competition;

• Entries to this competition will need to align with one or more of the four innovation themes outlined in this document'


Read the document here