United Utilities has opened the application process for its Innovation Lab 4 Programme – the water company is making an estimated £1 million budget available for the programme.

The pioneering accelerator programme has delivered some of the most successful outcomes in the water industry - previous participants in the programme have gone on to great things.

In May, Cumbrian firm Typhon, who developed the use of UV LEDs to disinfect drinking water, won a UK Water Industry Award for Drinking Water Initiative of the Year.

Photo courtesy Typhon

In July, FIDO Tech, the world’s only AI to detect water leaks and their size by analysing the noise they make, was chosen to represent the entire UK tech sector in a global competition organised by KPMG. FIDO has co-located with United Utilities in the North West, where it can develop and test new products every day.

Photo courtesy Fido

Innovation Lab 4.0 will help even more innovative businesses grow and develop by giving them access to United Utilities’ expertise, resources and data to test, develop, improve and demonstrate their ideas.

They will need to prove they have the potential to help the water sector serve its customers better and improve performance in several key areas:

Digital network business: United Utilities wants its extensive network of water and wastewater assets to be fully connected digitally. This means understanding its condition and performance, bringing all types of information and data from internal and external sources together, connecting legacy assets, and aligning it with its digital strategy and systems to enable prediction and intervention where needed.

Energy efficiency: The utility uses and generates significant amounts of energy from its operations and wants to manage this better in two key areas. First, data aggregation; how to pull data from existing sources and compile these into a verified and high quality position? Second, how to operationalise that insight to process change? In this category, the water company says it is not not looking for analytics software or visualisation tools.

Net zero and Natural solutions: United Utilities has a goal to achieve net zero from its operations - part of that means using more nature-based solutions instead of heavily industrial systems. For this category, the company is working in partnership with the Environment Agency in the North West, on topics including biodiversity, natural flood management and community engagement.

Wildcard: This category is open to any new company whose technology could transform any aspect of United Utilities business that isn’t covered by the other three categories.

Applications for the fourth 12-week programme have now opened - interested companies have until mid-October to submit their ideas.

United Utilities Chief Executive Steve Mogford said:

“Four years ago, we set up our Innovation Lab programme with the aim of attracting new entrants to United Utilities, finding ideas that others miss and, by fast-tracking them to trial and adoption, supporting their growth. What a success it’s been. Of the more than 350 new ideas sent in to us from around the world, a significant proportion were previously unheard of in the water sector globally and we have forged some deep and valuable new long-lasting innovation partnerships.

“Forty per cent of those that went on to secure contracts with us have female founders and many have a presence in the North West, showing the Lab’s potential as an engine of growth for the regional economy as well. I’m really looking forward to what this year’s Lab will bring.”

As in previous years, United Utilities will deliver its Innovation Lab programme with corporate innovation specialist, L Marks. L Marks has recently entered a 5-year agreement to act as United Utilities innovation partner after a competitive tendering process.

Successful applicants will be co-located (where possible, and subject to Covid and travel restrictions) & work closely with UU to test, develop, improve and demonstrate their product/service in live customer environments. The process could then lead to opportunities for contractual relationships for further ongoing testing and/or roll-out.

The company is offering project managers and resources to design and run the best trial conditions for the best ideas – either a 12-week testing programme or different trial design.

Each trial will accelerate and improve the chance for large-scale roll-out. In previous labs, success in the programme has led to long-term commercial partnerships and ongoing product development.

Successful applicants will be mentored by senior United Utilities business leaders and get access to test and demonstrate their product/service in live customer environments.

The water company is looking for up to 25 candidates via the following selection process:

• At application stage, candidates will only pass through to the ideas stage if they are of good standing.
• At Ideas stage, the top 25 highest scoring applicants will pass through to Pitch Day (providing their score is 40 % or above).

Following Pitch Day, responses will be assessed and up to eight applicants will be awarded a place in the Innovation Lab.

Applications are open until midday on October 22, 2021. For more information about the programme and the four challenge areas, click here to visit the Innovation Lab website.