Innovation Accelerator

• In no more than 500 words, describe the innovation and please explain how your idea unlocks one (or more of the following): advances in flood modelling or mapping, improves flood resilience and helps communities plan for climate change, brings use of data and technology to the floods sector or helps the floods sector meet its drive to carbon net zero.
• Please provide a 100-word summary of your innovation that NCE can use for marketing purposes to promote your entry, should you be shortlisted.
• Please submit three images or diagrams as a zip file to support your entry. Any images must be at least 1MB in size, be in jpeg format and must not have annotation or logos added.
• Please submit your water or flood innovation entry to the Innovation accelerator by 14 March 2026.
• All entrants to the Innovation Accelerator will receive one free place at the NCE co-located Water and Flood Resilience conferences in London on Wednesday 29 April and, if your entry is shortlisted, you will be invited to the to participate in the Innovation accelerator challenge which involves a 10-minute presentation to judges and the audience followed by Q&A. 
• You must be available to attend the NCE co-located Water and Flood Resilience conference in-person on Wednesday 29 April at Victoria Park Plaza, London.

• Innovation to reduce carbon.
• Resilience in Infrastructure through advanced strategies and tools
• Innovative technologies for rainwater filtration
• Enhanced flood warning systems and flood forecasting
• Nature-based flood solutions and Biodiversity Net Gain
• Maintenance of assets through AI tools like 5G, machine learning, robotics etc.

Entries will be judged based on the following criteria:

• Innovation: The originality of the idea and potential impact on the flood and/or water sector
• Impact: Potential for your innovation to be used more widely both in the UK and internationally to solve challenges faced by the water and/or flood sector.
• Value: How does this innovation your innovation improve efficiency, financial cost or carbon cost of an overall project?
• Leadership: How does your innovation position you as an industry leader and why should other projects take the lead from your development?
• Collaboration:  How have you worked with the wider industry to develop your innovation and what further plans do you have to broaden your collaboration?
  

• Make a note of the deadline: you must submit your entry by 14 March. Speak to our team to ensure we can remind you of upcoming deadlines
• Make the judges' job easy: write in clear, plain English, avoid jargon and use bullet points where appropriate to break up the text
• Involve the right people: if your work was a team effort, don’t forget to involve the other team members in developing the entry. You've got this far through teamwork so make it count
• Back-up your entry: provide supporting information where possible, value analyses, customer experience survey results, documentation you have designed or anything else that will help the judges to understand the impact of your work
• Proofread, proofread, proofread: ask someone else, such as a colleague, friend or manager, to look through your entry before you hit submit. It can be helpful to ask someone who was not directly involved in the work you are entering, as like the judges, they will not have detailed knowledge so they could suggest ways to clarify your entry
  

• All shortlisted entrants , as determined by our judges, will receive a free pass to attend the collocated NCE Flood Resilience and Water conferences.
• Shortlisted organisations will get a 25% discount to pass onto their colleagues for additional seats.
• All entrants will be eligible for discounts on exhibition space at the conference.
• Shortlisted entrants will present their entry in front of the judging panel and event audience, giving you a great opportunity to raise the profile of your work in a room full of flood and water technology innovators and the entire supply chain .
• The winner will receive a write up online on New Civil Engineer website after the event.
  

• Please submit your entry by 14 March 2026
• Shortlist of three firms will be chosen
• Those shortlisted will be contacted by 27 March with details of the next steps needed to present at the conference
• Those shortlisted will have 10 minutes to present their entry and there will be a Q&A with all shortlisted entrants where the judges can put questions to the candidates
• The winning entry will be announced at the end of the conference on 29 April

• The challenge will take place in the conference demo space
• The competition will commence during the lunch break on 29 April
• 10-minute presentations will take place  followed by Q&A from the judges
• Please keep in mind the presentations will be run on a 10-minute timer
• Winners will be announced in the Flood Resilience conference room at 16:50
  

• AV facilities will be available
• Presentations should be in PowerPoint format and submitted a week before the conference date
• Teams will be given the instructions to upload their presentations on One Drive or will have the option to send us their presentation directly
• Lunch and refreshments will be provided throughout the day