This page compiles a list of resources to support entrants to the first Water Efficiency Lab competition (WEL 1) to prepare high quality entries. As well as reviewing the below materials, we encourage you to carefully read the Entrant Handbook.
Please ensure you have reviewed the WEL 1 Key Materials prior to submitting your entry.
We also recommend you review the Winner Agreement Template as early as possible, to speed up the signature process in the event your entry is selected for receiving funding.
Where relevant, entries that are successful will need to develop agreements with partners (commonly referred to as ‘collaboration agreements’). The WEL does not require the use of any particular template for collaboration agreements. However, should you wish to refer to an example, you can review this Collaboration Agreement Template. We suggest that the collaboration agreement is shared between partners before it is known if the project has been successful. This will aid the development of collaboration agreements in advance of the project start (which is strongly recommended) to avoid delays if the entry is successful.
The example collaboration agreement linked above is a cross-water company effort between the legal and innovation teams of water companies including Anglian Water, Thames Water, United Utilities, Severn Trent, Affinity Water, Welsh Water, Northumbrian Water and Southern Water. This agreement is flexible and therefore it is a basis for early discussion between partners where water companies are involved in the project. The WEL and any of the above organisations cannot provide any legal support or advice, nor be legally liable, in the event of any issues relating to a project’s collaboration agreement.
On this page:
Please review the frequently asked questions (FAQs) if you have any questions. If you still have questions after doing so, please email the WEL delivery team at [email protected].
Entries closed on 10 March 2026 at 1 pm (GMT).
You can download the templates below if you wish to draft your answers and budget offline:
For guidance on how to use Submittable, see section 6 of the FAQs.
We held a Launch Webinar on Wednesday 3 December 2025 at 12.00 – 1.00 pm, for attendees to learn more about WEL 1, its aims and the application process, and ask their questions to the delivery team.
You can also find the transcript here (PDF, 174 KB) and the slides here (PDF, 2 MB). We have responded to outstanding questions from the webinar which were not answered live in this Outstanding Questions document (PDF, 110 KB).
If you have specific questions on the entry process or terms and conditions, the WEL delivery team will be hosting 15-minute surgery sessions during the entry period. All surgery sessions will be held online using Zoom. Please note that the WEL delivery team may cancel your session where your question is not in scope (e.g. it is seeking guidance on the entry itself) or can be answered in the Entrant Handbook or FAQs, and direct you to the relevant answers.
Please note that the WEL delivery team cannot provide any guidance and/or opinion on the entries themselves.
Book a slot via Calendly below:
We know that for some types of solutions, partnerships will be vital for the solution to be implemented successfully, or to combine complementary expertise from different organisations. Assessors and judges will be seeking to understand the team delivering the solution through assessment criterion 3.1 (team capability and partnerships), as well as the solution’s route to market strategy in assessment criterion 4.1.
If your organisation is seeking to form partnerships in order to submit an entry to the WEL, the WEL delivery team are facilitating this from interested parties via the Partnerships form.
The form asks you to share key details about your team’s expertise, indicate the potential solution type you’re looking to develop (if known), and the key skills or expertise areas where you are seeking to form partnerships. It only takes a few minutes to complete, and you will need to provide consent for your contact details to be shared with other organisations interested in forming partnerships.
You will then receive access to a document which contains details of all other organisations who have completed the partnerships form and shared their contact details. It is then your opportunity to directly contact any organisations who may be of interest to form a partnership to enter WEL 1. This document will be continuously updated, so we encourage you to keep checking back for new organisations who might have the expertise you are looking for.
This partnerships form is not mandatory, but we encourage you to complete it if your organisation is seeking to form partnerships to enter the WEL.
Please note that the Partnerships form is hosted in Google Forms; you do not need a Google account to complete it.
To support further partnership formation, the WEL delivery team hosted an in-person networking event on Thursday 15 January 2026 between 2.00 – 5.00 pm, for potential entrants to meet other organisations seeking to form partnerships to enter WEL 1. The networking event took place at the Challenge Works offices in London.
We have responded to a number of outstanding questions from attendees of the Networking Event in the Networking Event Outstanding Questions document below. Among other answers, we have included a clarification on the Mandatory Contribution required for WEL 1 entries, and a set of example scenarios for how the mandatory contribution could be met.
We are aiming to make sure the entry process is as accessible, efficient and practical as possible. If you have any challenges with the entry process or there are any reasonable adjustments that would support you to enter, catering for any additional needs you have, please contact us at [email protected].
