Innovation delivers better when lessons are shared, so here’s to doing exactly that.
We’re sharing the progress and key learnings so far as we pioneer a world-first approach to real-time coastal water monitoring with our £7M Ofwat-funded Smart Skies, Healthy Waters project.
A world-first initiative to protect our waters
Smart Skies, Healthy Waters, in partnership with NWG (Northumbrian Water Group), is a world-first approach to rapid, actionable water intelligence.
Our mission is to give water companies, regulators and the public the clearest picture of the health of our waters through a combination of robotics, automated drones and rapid shore-side testing.
Taking flight at Innovation Festival 2025
We officially kicked off the project at Northumbrian Water’s Innovation Festival in July, joined by our partners, industry experts and advocates for improving bathing waters.
From the very start, collaboration has been at the heart of the project and during the festival sprint we worked together to develop personas, draft dashboards and even began building them out to create tools we could test.
Aligning minds, defining targets
After defining our technical working groups, we moved through the rest of the discovery phase, aligning all teams and setting ourselves up for success. During the requirements phase, we:
- Locked in a high-level system concept for the final solution
- Scoped demonstration locations with involved water companies
- Mapped requirements and targets for each of the key elements. This covered everything from tidal modelling and water testing, to drone sampling systems, IoT, data infrastructure, and even our eventual lab-in-a-box container.
Through this work, we ensured that no aspect was overlooked and that we’re delivering against all of our original objectives, plus any new insight we’ve gained along the way.
Early wins
- We’re already two months ahead of schedule.
- Collaboration with our partners is teaching us so much, the passion and expertise across our working groups is clear to see.
- The project was shortlisted for ‘Best Real-Time Water Quality Monitoring Project’ at the Environmental Monitoring Awards 2025.
- We’ve already demoed some of our technology on a live project with Northumbrian Water.
From vision to action: the design phase
We’re now ready to kick off the next phase, where all of our careful planning will be put into action. This is where the project begins to truly come to life, creating a world-first solution that will transform how water companies and regulators understand and protect our waters.
Finding our way as a team
Bringing multiple organisations together to deliver a world-first project has been incredibly rewarding, but it’s also a learning experience in itself.
One key lesson so far is the importance of being open to different ways of working, particularly when crossing sectors from water to tech and into academia. Finding an approach that works best for everyone requires open and regular communication.
By adapting where needed but staying aligned with our original plan, we’ve been able to move quickly without compromising on quality or objectives – and it’s a testament to the commitment of everyone involved.
Collaboration makes it happen
We’re delighted to be working with NWG (Northumbrian Water Group), Skyports Drone Services, Tharsus, Business and partnerships with Newcastle University, Proteus Instruments, Southern Water, South West Water and United Utilities.
We’ve also had valuable input from various other voices, from regulators to coastal businesses, helping us keep in mind the bigger picture – reminding us that open water quality data is vital to everyone.
What’s next?
As we move into the design phase, we’re excited to continue sharing our journey and the lessons we learned.
If you’re at a water company or regulator and would like to get involved, there’s always room for more input so drop us a message, we’d love to chat.
