Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/730827
In the know United Utilities (UU) has joined a new international partnership to promote innovation in the global water industry. The scheme, known as ino3W, 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. Other water companies involved include American Water, PUB (Singapore), and Queensland Urban Utilities in Australia. Through the partnership, United Utilities will gain first access in the UK to the latest innovations in the water sector. Kieran Brocklebank, head of innovation at United Utilities, 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 RESEARCH ROUND UP UU joins international innovation partnership us is an exciting challenge." As an early technology adopter, UU also 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, added: "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 RISING UP Infrastructure services company AECOM has hired John Priestland as chief executive, major bids and corporate development, Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMIA). Reporting to EMIA chief executive Steve Morriss, Priestland will serve as a member of the EMIA executive team and will focus on growing AECOM's business across all markets in the region. He will be based in London. Yorkshire Water has announced that Anthony Rabin has been appointed as chairman of its board. Rabin will serve as chairman of Kelda Holdings Ltd, Kelda Eurobond Co Ltd and Yorkshire Water Services Ltd, with effect from September 9th. He assumed the role of acting chairman on 27th May following the decision of Professor Richard Parry- Jones to step down; his appointment has now been made permanent. Wessex Water has appointed Richard Keys as a new independent non- executive director to its board. Keys, a chartered accountant, spent 37 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, where he was a partner for 26 years. Southern Water chief executive Matthew Wright is to leave the company next year, a er more than six years in charge. Wright will remain in place until spring/summer 2017 while the company seeks a successor. MWH, now part of Stantec, has appointed Tom Elvin as head of programme controls in the UK. Elvin has previously worked across various industry sectors including utilities, oil and gas, rail, petrochemicals, nuclear, shipbuilding and power generation. utilities with validated technologies. 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 commercialization approach." ● 31 Digging Deeper: Skills ● 35 Getting to Grips: Pump screen protection ● 39 Research Notes: Sewer infiltration ● 43 Products: Drives and motors 5 Oct WWT Water Scotland conference, Glasgow 2 Nov WWEM Conference, Telford 10 Nov WWT Water Industry Supplier Conference, Birmingham 6 Dec Future of the Water Sector conference, Leicester COmING UP The Treasury will underwrite funding for approved Horizon 2020 projects applied for before the UK leaves the European Union, the government has announced. The commitment is intended to provide reassurance to applicants from the UK's research and innovation base when applying for EU research funding. British businesses have been urged to continue to bid for funds while the UK remains a member of the EU. The Treasury will underwrite the payment of such awards, even when specific projects continue beyond the UK's departure from the EU. The announcement follows the government's commitment in last year's Spending Review to protect UK science spending in real terms, providing £26.3BN from April 2016 to April 2021. Horizon 2020 is the European Union's flagship research and innovation programme aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness. With a budget of almost €80BN between 2014 and 2020, the programme awards funding to the most innovative research ideas to help bring them to market quicker; the water sector has been among those active in the programme. Through the programme the UK has secured 15.5 per cent of total funds to date totalling around €2BN, second out of all participating countries. Government to safeguard EU research funding in Horizon 2020 programme www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | OCTOBER 2016 | 29