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The Water Innovation Fund Delivery Partners

Ofwat Logo

Ofwat, the Water Services Regulation Authority for England and Wales, launched the Ofwat Innovation Fund in 2020. Ofwat is a non-ministerial government department established in 1989, when the water and sewerage industry in England and Wales was privatised. Ofwat regulates the water sector in England and Wales. Read more about Ofwat’s duties on their website.

The Ofwat Innovation Fund is delivered in partnership with Challenge Works, Arup, Isle Utilities, Innovate UK and ICF. You can read more about how the Fund works on the About the Fund page.

The delivery partners

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At Challenge Works, we design and run challenge prizes to spark innovation in science, technology and society. Challenge prizes offer a series of incentives in return for solving a defined challenge – creating breakthrough innovations, helping innovators thrive and unlocking systemic change. Since 2012, we’ve run over 100 prizes, awarding more than £250m to global innovators. We partner with governments, philanthropists and businesses to deliver high-impact competitions focused on frontier tech, climate, cities, health and international development. As innovation experts, we combine research, lived experience and sector insights to create real-world change. Challenge Works is part of Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good.

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Dedicated to sustainable development, Arup is a collective of designers, consultants and experts working globally. Founded to be humane and excellent, we collaborate with our clients and partners using imagination, technology, and rigour to shape a better world.

Together we help our clients solve their most complex challenges – turning exciting ideas into tangible reality as we strive to find a better way and shape a better world. With a community of over 1800 water professionals, Arup is leading global thinking across key areas like innovation, resilience, net zero carbon and sustainable water management.

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Isle are a global consultancy, partnering across the water system to accelerate the water environmental transition.

Our services and platforms help de-risk the development, commercialization, and adoption of technologies, creating value and accelerating innovative solutions.

Independent Evaluation Provider

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ICF is a trusted, independent evaluation provider to UK government departments and agencies, known for delivering rigorous, evidence-based and policy-relevant insights across a wide range of public programmes. Our multidisciplinary teams bring deep expertise in evaluation design, impact assessment, and real-time learning, supporting clients such as Ofwat, DSIT, Defra, DESNZ, and MHCLG. We work collaboratively with programme delivery teams to develop evaluation frameworks, align with existing monitoring systems, and minimise burden – ensuring our evaluations are both robust and practical.