Spring Accelerator 3
The next Spring Accelerator programme – addressing an Ambition inside WIS2050 Theme 3: Protecting and Enhancing Natural Systems – is looking for specific, implementable solutions that help improve the relationship between the water sector in the UK and Ireland and the environment in which we operate.
A water catchment is a water body (for example, rivers, reservoirs, seas, and groundwaters) and the area of land that surrounds it. Human activity in a catchment can impact the water within in multiple ways, including but not limited to runoff from land use, abstraction from water bodies, and returning water to the environment. Safeguarding these water bodies is a crucial part of our efforts to protect the natural environment and is essential for our health, well-being and economic prosperity.
Spring invites innovators to provide solutions to help us better understand, monitor and take action about the challenges and opportunities in water catchments to help protect source water health and the environment.
Spring Accelerator 3 aims to identify and support solutions that bridge the gaps in enhanced catchment monitoring. Data collection is an element of this, but delivering the capability to make sense of and use this data is equally vital. The aim of this Accelerator is to provide integrated insights and forecasting abilities, augmenting the capabilities of water utility decision-makers. Successful solutions for Spring Accelerator 3 will not only help safeguard the environment but help water companies operate more efficiently, saving them time, money, resources and reducing regulatory breaches.
Read our full Call for Innovation here.
Challenge timeline
Find out more about the Accelerator and how to apply.
The Spring Accelerator is an end-to-end innovation challenge process that has been created to identify innovative solutions that help address a significant need in the UK water sector, reduce the duplication of innovation efforts, and provide a path to faster adoption.
Each Accelerator programme launches a specific Call for Innovation which has been designed to address a specific Ambition inside one of the seven Water Innovation Strategy 2050 themes. Spring Accelerator 3 sites inside Theme 3: Protecting & Enhancing Natural Systems.
Learn more about the Accelerator here.
The Accelerator is open to all innovators who have an idea or solution that addresses the challenge statement. Applicants may be individuals, businesses or a partnership between the two.
You can submit more than one entry to the Challenge.
Innovators can be UK-based or international.
Priority will be given for solutions not previously trialled in the UK and Ireland.
More detailed information, including the application questions and scoring criteria, can be found in our Innovator Guidelines.
The goal of the Spring Accelerator is to speed up the process of finding, progressing, and adopting solutions to a given water industry challenge. This means that those who successfully navigate the accelerator process will go on to progress their solution with one or more water utilities. This could take the form of mentoring, a collaborative trial to test the solution in context, or anything in between.
Following Water Company engagement, Spring’s Knowledge Transfer service will provide easily shared project outputs, creating sector-wide project legacy and making it easier for teams to communicate the intricacies of their project to a wider audience.
At this time, financial support is not offered as part of the Spring Accelerator process. Project / trial delivery is at the discretion of the water companies involved.
Submissions to the Accelerator first undergo a review from Spring’s industry experts who will provide an initial assessment of the application.
Submissions will then be shared with subject matter experts who have been selected by each of the participating water companies. The subject matter experts will provide a second review of submissions and vote on the ones that they would like to be brought forward to the Innovation Exchange. Feedback is aggregated and sent to all applicants.
Applicants who are invited to the Innovation Exchange will have the opportunity to pitch their solutions to key water company stakeholders. These events go a lot deeper than a pitch, however; experts and decision makers from interested water companies will join applicants in a round-table like moment to start building a business case for mobilising the solution. Successful Exchange events end with commitment from multiple water companies to progress a solution.
More detailed information, including the application questions and scoring criteria, can be found in our Innovator Guidelines.
