Industry magazine Water & Wastewater Treatment published the results of an innovation survey on 25 November. Senior executives and managers of water companies were surveyed in partnership with innovation trade body UK Water Industry Research, examining attitudes towards ongoing and future innovation efforts at GB water & sewerage companies (WaSCs) and water-only companies (WoCs).
Our chart this week presents attitudes towards innovation enablers. Open data was ranked highest on average across WaSCs and WoCs, while ideas around cooperation were highly thought of, with a cross-sector strategy, better regulatory coordination, a sector-wide portal and innovation priority list, a Centre for Excellence and tool kits all suggested. WaSCs tended to consider cross-sector and coordinated working, along with working with the regulator, better enablers than WoCs, which ranked all enabler lower than WaSCs except a Centre for Innovation Excellence.