The Water Breakthrough Challenge

What was Round 1 of the Water Breakthrough Challenge about?

The Water Breakthrough Challenge is the second competition funded through the Ofwat Innovation Fund. It aims to spark ambitious innovation and enable new approaches and ways of working, equipping the water sector to address the big challenges facing the sector, driving far-reaching and long-lasting benefits to customers, society and the environment across England and Wales now and into the future.

We announced the nine wnners of the first Water Breakthrough Challenge on 30 September 2021.

Meet the winners of the first water breakthrough challenge

What happened during the Challenge?

On 3 June 2021, the first round of the £40 million Water Breakthrough Challenge (the ‘Breakthrough Challenge’) closed for entries led by water companies, including new entrant water companies (NAVs).

Following the closing date on 3 June, Stage 1 entries were screened for eligibility and assessed, and a diverse portfolio of entries that best met the relevant assessment criteria were invited to submit a Stage 2 entry from 28 June 2021.

The Stage 2 entry period was open for 5 weeks, closing on 30 July 2021.

The winners were announced on 30 September 2021.

Individual entries to the Breakthrough Challenge could bid for between £1 million to £10 million from the Innovation Fund. We were open to considering smaller value bids from small water companies (including NAVs).

Download the entrant handbook for further details.

Find out more:

We held a live webinar and Q&A session on Thursday 13th May at 11 am (BST) to dive into the competition’s details. Thank you to all of you who attended! Watch the recording below. The transcript is available here.

We hosted a webinar on Tuesday 30th March 2021 at 2pm (GMT) to share details about the Water Breakthrough Challenge and answer your questions. The transcript is available here.