Testing

Enables innovators to validate technologies and gain sector trust through recognised standards. 

A funding-and-pilot mechanism launched in December 2021 to de-risk full-scale demonstrations of water-sector technologies in real operational environments.

Tech companies can receive repayable grants (if the trial succeeds) to test innovations; end-users (utilities/industry) can trial with minimal financial risk.

This facility helps overcome the lack of real-world testing environments by enabling leakage detection and repair trials in a controlled, non-disruptive setting. It accelerates validation and certification of new technologies.

Scottish Water’s centres address barriers to operational-scale testing by providing live environments for water and wastewater innovation. They enable safe, off-network trials that support climate resilience and sector excellence.

The Shop Window helps overcome adoption bottlenecks by offering a live testbed for innovation across the full water cycle. It enables suppliers to trial solutions in real conditions and supports collaborative learning.

The initiative includes state-of-the-art facilities at various universities, such as the Buried Infrastructure Lab and the National Research Facility for Infrastructure Sensing, which facilitate research and testing of new materials and technologies for sustainable urban development. 

They focus on providing research and consultancy services across various sectors, including agri- food, oil and gas, environmental, and water. 

CPI acts as a catalyst bringing together academia, businesses, government and investors to translate bright ideas and research into the marketplace.

United Utilities addresses limited access to operational testbeds and slow validation cycles through its Innovation Lab programme, which offers structured live trials and executive engagement for new technologies. UU has an innovation testing rig for clean water testing. Independent of live network, the rig has access chambers, 75m of overland pipes, mainly 110mm PPE and 50m of underground, mainly 4 inch cast iron.

Scottish Water Horizons (SWH) is a commercial subsidiary of Scottish Water, which delivers non-regulated services using the utility’s infrastructure, assets and expertise. Their activities include:

Operating technology development and testing facilities (water and wastewater “Development Centres”) where innovators can trial new treatment, sensor and infrastructure technologies at operational scale.

Leveraging the utility’s network and assets for low-carbon and circular-economy solutions (e.g., wastewater heat recovery, renewable energy, hydrogen production) partnered with industry.

Spring, in collaboration with the UK Water Partnership and Water Test Network,  have curated a database which gives innovators much greater insight to the ideal facilities to test their new ideas, methods and devices.

It is a sector-wide directory of facilities that allows innovators to benefit from a much quicker, more efficient route to market.

Stream (open-data platform) focuses on enabling the sharing, access and use of water-industry datasets across organisations, to drive innovation and improve outcomes for customers, society and the environment.

It provides standardised data-infrastructure and governance to make water-data findable, understandable and reusable.

Severn Trent’s facilities tackle barriers to nature-based and infrastructure innovation by providing open access for testing at scale. They support net zero goals and community engagement through real-world trials.

These hubs help overcome siloed innovation by embedding testing into environmental investment programmes. They support trials focused on storm overflow reduction, resilience, and community impact.

This gateway helps overcome entry barriers for suppliers by providing a clear route to pitch solutions. It supports early-stage testing and feedback, helping innovators refine and align with utility needs.

Addresses lack of testbeds for sensing & supports prototype-to-deployment translation.