Worldwide Partnership Aims To Boost Water Innovation

Warrington-based water company United Utilities has been named as the only UK firm in a new international innovation partnership

ino3W has been set up to promote innovation in the global water industry. The partnership aims to enable new water technologies to be tried, tested and brought onto the market in up to ten different countries around the world.

Ultimately, ino3W will help drive operational efficiency and asset management improvement for water companies around the world.

Through the partnership, United Utilities will gain first access in the UK to the latest innovations in the water sector.

Kieran Brocklebank is Head of innovation at United Utilities and he explained why the company had got involved in the partnership: “This is exactly what our Innovation Team should be doing – being at the forefront of testing new technologies and making them work for us is an exciting challenge.”

In addition, as an early technology adopter, United Utilities expects to share in the royalties generated from future technology sales both in the UK and other international markets.

The company’s Business Development Director, Jonathan Hodgkin, said: “We are proud to be the UK partner of ino3W; helping new technologies to reach new markets is good business for us and will help us to keep delivering an efficient service to our customers.”

ino3W had recently also teamed up with the European Innovation Partnership on Water (EIP Water) in order to increase market access for EU water technology developers and provide progressive water utilities with validated technologies.

Mr. Shai Schechter, ino3W CEO, added: ”This is a great opportunity and the beginning of what promises to be an important milestone for the UK water industry regarding perception of water technology.”

“We also believe that future cooperation between United Utilities and ino3W, will yield more UK driven water technologies development, given the opportunity for faster commercialisation acceleration. ino3W offers UK driven technologies an opportunity to cooperate with a select group of progressive global water partners and taking advantage of a revolutionary validation and commercialisation approach.”