Open Innovation Challenge

Whenever there is a market gap – a true absence of effective solutions to a challenge – there is also an opportunity to accelerate solutions to the market that yield significant potential profit. Understanding the scope and nuances that comprise the challenge is critical to equipping innovators to inspire ideas, develop prototypes, and evolve solutions that can make a transformational – and potentially very profitable -- impact.

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CWA’s Open Innovation Challenge programming aims to solve real-world challenges within the water industry, connecting innovators with grant funding or potential purchasers. Participants receive access to exclusive testbeds to prove their market-driven innovations in partnership with industry leaders.

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Now Live: Detecting Lead Service Lines without Breaking Ground

This Request for Technology Concepts (RFTC) is a call for technologies and innovative concepts around a significant market gap: the physical detection of the material(s) comprising drinking water utility service lines without having to dig down to the service-line pipes for identification. Participants in this RFTC may be eligible to receive grant dollars to assist in bringing their solutions to market.

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Grant Opportunity:  US $75,000 total

Individual grants anticipated between US $3,000 and US $25,000 each.

Letters of Intent (LOI) Due: Wednesday, June 14, 2023 at 3p ET

Proposals Due: Wednesday, July 12, 2023 at 3p ET