Ofwat’s Water Breakthrough Challenge has awarded £1.5 million to four Thames Water led projects which will support the water sector to better meet the needs of customers, communities, and the environment.

A project to slash greenhouse gas emission and energy demand of used water processing and create a new source of hydrogen energy, and a project in partnership with the Rivers Trust and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) to clean up the country’s rivers, have been announced today as two of the nine winners of Ofwat’s first Water Breakthrough Challenge.

Ofwat’s £40 million innovation competition – the Water Breakthrough Challenge – launches today with the aim of sparking ambitious innovation and new ways of working in the water sector.

Ofwat has this morning announced the launch of a new collaborative competition to encourage innovation for water and wastewater services and drive transformational change for the sector – with entrants able to win a share of £40 million.

Ofwat has announced Nesta, supported by Arup and Isle Utilities, as its partner for its £200 million water innovation competitions – with the first competition opening in January 2021.

The UK’s first water innovation strategy has been published setting out a new vision for transformational change through innovation across the UK water sector.

Following Ofwat’s consultation between May-June 2020, water sector regulator Ofwat has unveiled details of how it will design and implement its innovation fund using two types of annual competition.

Ofwat is seeking views on the options for the design and implementation of the proposed innovation competition which will make up to £200m of additional funding available for AMP7.