Ofwat announces new innovation competitions as it launches Breakthrough 6

Ofwat released high-level details of new innovation competitions as it launched its sixth Water Breakthrough Challenge innovation competition today. With a £50m pot, Breakthrough 6 kicks off the distribution of £400m of innovation funding between 2025 and 2030.

As before, Breakthrough features two streams: 

• ’Catalyst’ will award partnerships seeking between £150,000 and £2m. It will close for entries on 6 January 2026.

• ’Transform' will award partnerships seeking between £2m and £10m. First stage entries close on 29 September 2025, with the most promising entries then invited to enter stage two on 17 November 2025. 

The winners of both streams will be announced in mid-May 2026.

This is the first of five annual Breakthrough challenges to be run in AMP8. Key elements will be familiar to the industry. As in previous rounds, the regulator is seeking collaborative innovations led by water companies (and Tideway) that will help tackle the biggest challenges facing the water sector. The competition will be delivered by innovation prize expert Challenge Works (part of Nesta), in partnership with Arup and Isle Utilities.

Ofwat added that in addition to Breakthrough, it will run two Water Discovery Challenges for innovators new to the water sector – with Water Discovery Challenge 2 opening in January 2026. 

There will also be four new competition and funding streams:

• The Water Efficiency Lab – this will be launched on 25 November, and forms part of the new £100m Water Efficiency Fund. The Water Efficiency Lab will be a series of competitions dedicated to supporting innovations that drive a transformative, sustained, and measurable reduction in water demand across both household and non-household customers. The first competition will call on innovators to develop solutions that deliver personalised water usage insights that drive a reduction in water consumption.

• The Water Innovations Missions – launching in 2026, this will identify a problem of strategic importance for the water sector with water companies, as a collective, bringing forward solutions.

• The Cross-Sector Challenge – led by Innovate UK, this will launch in April 2026 and has the aim of delivering cross-sector solutions which support mutually beneficial and long-term systemic change for the water environment.

• The Implementation Programme – led by Isle Utilities this will also launch in 2026. It seeks to accelerate the speed and scale by which innovation is adopted across the sector, through the provision of supporting resources and funding to overcome barriers to implementation.   

Ofwat said more details will be made available on the new competitions in the coming months. For details on the current Breakthrough rounds, visit waterinnovation.challenges.org