Grants totalling over £2.5m have been awarded for seven collaborative research and development projects that aim to deliver innovation to help safeguard future water supplies.
Funded jointly by the Technology Strategy Board, the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs, the Natural Environment Research Council and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the projects will address overseas and UK water security challenges.
The total cost of the projects, including contributions from the participating companies, is in excess of £5.6m.
Iain Gray, chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board, said: “The sustainable and secure supply of water is a major challenge for modern societies. This presents innovation opportunities in water for UK businesses, particularly in the export market and for companies in the supply chain.”
The R&D activity to be supported by the Government funding aims to find innovative solutions to help secure our planet’s future water supply, while at the same time turning this challenge into a market opportunity by developing profitable new ways to use our current water sources more effectively.
All of the companies have been challenged to create a new technology or process that will either save or recycle 1,000 million litres per day worth of water – equivalent to roughly the same volume of water it would take to fill 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The collaborative projects will be led by Arvia Technology, Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions, Cambrensis, Halcrow Group, KEE Process, Quest UAV and Watershed Associates.
Photo Courtesy of Fox Kiyo
