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Ofwat Innovation Fund

To grow the water sector’s capacity to innovate, Ofwat has established an Innovation Fund. This will help in managing the needs of our customers, society, and environment. Between 2020-25 the fund has provided £200 million of investment. For 2025-30 it will increase to £400 million and £100 million Water Efficiency Fund created.

The fund supports water company initiatives and projects that show bold new approaches to innovation. We've detailed some of the highlights from our projects as part of this:

A Piggy Bank

Total project value

£27.8 million

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Number of industry partners involved

35

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Total Ofwat project funding

£24.9 million

Ofwat Innovation funded projects

You can find out more about the Ofwat Innovation Fund projects we're leading:

Houses with a tree

Community centric rainwater

The project aimed to help ‘slow the flow’ of rainwater entering sewers.

A new pipe

Pipebots for rising mains

We're working on preventing bursts and protecting the environment.

A dashboard

Unlocking digital twins

We've worked on establishing industry-wide data standards and tools for digital twins.

A sewage worker

Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment (AWT)

We're transforming the energy balance of wastewater treatment.

A house in a flood

Sub-seasonal weather forecasting

We've improved weather forecasting to help predict business impact.

Burst pipe

No-dig leak repair

We're developing a groundbreaking "no-dig" repair technology to tackle leaking water mains.

An inspector

Sewage sludge pyrolysis

We're working to deliver the UK's first continuously operating, sludge-fed pyrolysis demonstration plant.

Maintenance

SUDS through street works

We're incentivising street works to install sustainable drainage systems (SUDS) for flood mitigation.

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SandSCAPE project

We're using robots to clean slow sand filters to help improve water purification.