An AI-generated expert in your pocket, a Vinted-style marketplace for buying and selling land, and even smarter smart sewers are among some of the incredible ideas to come out of Northumbrian Water’s Innovation Festival 2025.
The event, which took place at Newcastle Racecourse in July, saw over 3,000 innovators from across the globe come up with revolutionary ideas to improve the water industry and the local environment.
Since the launch of Northumbrian Water’s flagship festival in 2016, over 300 potential inventions have come from the event and it is believed that the top ten ideas from 2025 could have a potential value of £68m per year and will contribute to improvements in efficiency, infrastructure and economies.
Previous festival ideas have gone on to do some incredible things – such as the National Underground Asset register, which is now being used by the UK government to help water companies, and many other partners, identify the networks of pipes, cables and infrastructure underground.
And ‘Smart Skies Healthy Water’, which is using drones to monitor the region’s water quality, is helping the teams to make quick and accurate informed decisions to improve rivers and seas.
The ninth annual Innovation Festival saw 39 countries, 500 organisations and 45 sectors coming together to embrace the theme of regeneration and the ideas it produced really demonstrate the benefits of this holistic approach to problem solving.
Among the ‘ones to watch’ from IF2025 are: a project that will help to make green fuel from biosolids in wastewater, a digital social media-style platform to help local authorities during the planning process, and a project to help reduce the impact of storm overflows.
A real standout project that is already starting to revolutionize the water industry, and one that has been worked on at Innovation Festivals since 2023 is smart sewers – which uses AI and sensor technology to manage flows in the sewer network, freeing up room in the system to prevent storm overflows from occurring.
The top ten ideas from IF25:
1. HAPI – Trading Biodiversity for a Better Planet
Imagine a digital marketplace where organisations can buy, sell, and suggest land use for environmental benefit. HAPI (Habitat and Property Investment) is designed to do just that – helping to manage biodiversity better by streamlining investment decisions, cutting red tape, and accelerating progress towards a greener future. Like Vinted – but for the environment!
2. Build it – Smarter Planning for Better Communities
Local councils and planners often juggle (and struggle using) outdated planning systems. "Build it" is a project to create a one-stop digital platform for planning infrastructure, housing, and environmental goals. This will enable more informed, transparent, quicker and joined up decision-making that truly benefits local communities.
3. Ingress-Ception – Tackling Unwanted Flow and Flooding
Unwanted water, such as road run-off and groundwater, entering the network is a growing problem. This handy idea will use a visual data platform to help manage water flow, and will also use a behaviour change method to help communities understand water-related issues.
4. Total Recall – The AI That Answers Your Site Questions
Total Recall is like having an expert on hand 24/7. It is an AI chatbot loaded with all of the knowledge, history, data and information from a company - helping teams in the field make smart, informed decisions by providing relevant answers and pointing to additional information when needed – all in real-time.
5. Smart Sewer 2.0 – Reimagining Wastewater Systems
This project uses a single pane of glass interface, similar to a super-high-tech iPhone screen, to manage sewer systems with high efficiency. It will allow teams to respond quicker, use data more effectively and will significantly lower costs – all while reducing risk to the environment.
6. H2OH – Turning Waste Into Clean Energy
H2OH is turning wastewater treatment sites into clean energy hubs by converting waste gases they produce into hydrogen or other green fuels. Think power from poo but at every site – this helps the environment and reduces the company’s energy use.
7. Asset Risk Register – Know Your Infrastructure
This digital register helps engineers and decision-makers see which assets are most at risk, so they know where to focus. It gives a clearer view of infrastructure health, supporting safer and smarter investments.
8. ARC (Circular Economy) – Reuse, Regenerate, Reimagine
Think Facebook marketplace, but instead of old furniture being advertised, ARC is all about giving unused materials, such as pipes, parts and equipment, a new life – boosting circular economy efforts across the water sector.
9. Storming for Efficiency – Greener Stormwater Solutions
This project will give a greener upgrade to underground stormwater storage by using big crate tanks that are specially designed to be low-carbon and sustainable. Sustainability, built in from the start.
10. Spill Intelligence – Smart Response to Spills
By combining smart sensors with data already gathered in company systems, this project enables a quicker, more targeted response to wastewater spills – helping to protect the region’s rivers and seas. It builds trust with customers and regulators, while helping shape the future of wastewater.
Angela MacOscar, Head of Innovation at Northumbrian Water Group, said: “This year’s Innovation Festival generated a lot of valuable ideas, and we know that some of them will go on to progress and become incredibly successful, just like projects we have seen in the past.
“We are more focused on our innovation pipeline than ever before, and we are very eager to get each of these ideas off the ground.
“These projects show that we’re thinking big, acting boldly, and placing regeneration at the heart of everything we do – restoring ecosystems, revitalising infrastructure, and reimagining how we deliver value to people and the planet.
“I can’t wait to see how these powerful ideas move from concept to reality – and help us all step into a smarter, cleaner, and more regenerative future.”
To stay in the loop with all things Innovation Festival, explore the Innovation Festival Hub 2025 for more.