Ofwat adds new members to Water Breakthrough Challenge judging panels

Ofwat has announced a mixture of old and new judges for the next round of its innovation competition, the Water Breakthrough Challenge.

Judges for the Catalyst stream, which will award £5m in round two to entries seeking funding of between £100,000 and £1m, are:

Alison Austin OBE – independent CCW board member (new)

Tony Conway – visiting professor, University of Sheffield and director of British Water

Myrtle Dawes – solution centre director, Oil & Gas Technology Centre

Lila Thompson - chief executive, British Water

Nicole Ballantyne - knowledge transfer manager, Knowledge Transfer Network

Adam Scorer – CEO, National Energy Action Wales

Dragan Savic – CEO, KWR Water.

Judges for the Transform stream, which will award £34m in round two to entries seeking funding of between £1m and £10m, are:

Dr Jane Davidson – pro-vice chancellor, University of Wales Trinity Saint David (new)

Dr Steven Steer – lead data consultant, Zuhlke Group and former head of data at Ofgem (new)

Anusha Shah BEng, CEng, FICE – director resilient cities, Arcadis,

Sharon Darcy – director, Sustainability First

Paul O’Callaghan – founder and chief executive, BlueTech Research

Niki Roach FCIWEM, CEnv – former president, CIWEM and director and co-founder of AxiaOrigin,

Frank Rogalla – director of innovation and technology, Aqualia

Tony Conway – as above

Ofwat said 18 entries had been received for round two of the Catalyst stream, involving partnerships between 58 organisations. The Transform stream closes for final entries on 8 February 2022. Judging will commence in February with Catalyst winners to be announced in March and Transform winners in April.