Exploring the diffusion of engineering innovation in UK water and sewerage companies

In recent years, the water industry has recognised the need to embed innovation into its DNA in order to tackle environmental issues and meet customers’ expectations.

This is even more pressing in light of the AMP7 ambitions around efficiency, performance and customer service that were set following Ofwat’s 2019 price review.

But how exactly are engineering innovations being diffused in wastewater engineering departments of water and sewerage companies (WaSCs)? What can be done to encourage better take up of new approaches asks Stantec’s Senior Design Engineer Katarzyna Bednarczyk.

To answer these questions, Katarzyna gathers evidence from the three main groups working in the operational and project-based departments of WaScs: technicians, engineers and engineering line managers to investigate and evaluate the diffusion of engineering innovation.

In her research, Katarzyna also considers Ofwat’s control over driving innovation in the industry.

Read Katarzyna Bednarczyk full paper entitled ‘An investigation into the diffusion of engineering innovation in the wastewater engineering departments of the UK water and sewerage companies regulated by Ofwat in AMP6’ published in the Autumn 2020 Edition of the Institute of Water Journal.