Competition: Breakthrough 3: Transform
Amount awarded: £3,973,205
Led by: Northumbrian Water
Partners: Aiimi Limited, Anglian Water Service Limited, Costain Limited, Dwr Cymru Cyfyngedig (Welsh Water), Icebreaker One Limited, Open Data Institute Trading Limited, Scottish Water, SES Water Plc, Severn Trent Plc, Sia Partners UK Plc, South West Water Limited, Southern Water Services Limited, United Utilities Water Limited, Wessex Water Limited, Yorkshire Water Services Limited
Project completed: August 2025
Water cycle tag: Enabling Activities
Visit the Stream platform and see project updates on Stream’s LinkedIn page.
The Stream: Unlocking Innovation through Open Data project implementation phase (aka Stream 2) was relevant to all four of Ofwat’s strategic innovation themes stated at the time.
The water industry was and continues to face increasingly complex and volatile challenges arising from external factors such as climate change and rising pressures and expectations from customers.
The traditional methods of solving challenges were becoming less fit for purpose and there was a growing reliance on data to help find new ways to solve issues. Stream has enabled water companies and their partner ecosystems to more easily discover, understand, access, and bring sector data together to explore and test new ways of working. Stream’s vision is clear: ‘to unlock the value of water data to the benefit of customers, society and the environment’.
Publishing water industry data openly to consistent standards has also enabled a much more open and honest assessment of water sector performance, which is the first step to identifying areas for improvement. Customer voices have risen markedly during the period of implementation, demanding even higher levels of transparency, and Stream has been well placed to respond to this call.
Establishing water data sharing infrastructure collectively via Stream has been the most efficient and cost-effective way to enable the change. By doing it in a joined-upway, we have not only spread the load and cost, but we have also raised the capability to publish open data for many companies.
We have created common frameworks and platforms and have much more efficiently leveraged the expertise of partners who have proven success in other sectors. This has enabled us to move faster, ensure all companies get the opportunity to contribute and benefit and ensure our community of data-re-users are well served to drive innovation and release value from data.
Main homepage: www.streamwaterdata.co.uk – here you can find information on:
What Stream is: About Stream | Stream – Portal
Information on Stream’s blueprint, strategy and roadmap, data triage (risk assessment methodology): Sharing Water Data | Stream – Portal
A curated list of other open data sources users may find useful: Other Open Data Sources | Stream – Portal
Roadmaps and backlogs for Stream (including use case backlog): Roadmaps & Backlogs | Stream – Portal
Detail on Stream’s value framework, discovery and prioritisation process: Value Framework, Discovery and Prioritisation Processes | Stream – Portal
Technical Standards:
https://github.com/icebreakerone/stream-data-standards – here you can find information on any standards (and processes to agree and manage standards) that Stream has established
Governance:
Stream – Icebreaker One – here you can find all records of governance meetings (Advisory Group 1, Advisory Group 2 and Steering Group).
Comms:
Updates and knowledge sharing is often delivered via our LinkedIn page –www.linkedin.com/company/stream-unlocking-water-data
