Mode Labs has been awarded £100,000 by Ofwat's Water Discovery Challenge to develop and trial its CERES autonomous chemical monitoring platform for rivers and sewer overflows. The Oxford-based company was named one of 20 finalists in the £7.5 million competition, aimed at bringing continuous, laboratory-quality pollution detection into the field.

Mode Labs is based at Begbroke Science Park near Oxford and does not disclose turnover as an early-stage technology company. Ofwat, the economic regulator for the water sector in England and Wales, runs the Water Innovation Fund as a £600 million, 10-year programme that has awarded almost £250 million across multiple competitions since its launch.

The structural driver is regulatory pressure on water companies to detect pollution faster, sharpened by Ofwat's record £123 million fine over sewage spills, which has pushed the sector toward continuous monitoring technology rather than periodic lab sampling. CERES collects and analyses water samples autonomously in the field, making laboratory-quality chemical data available remotely in real time without routine manual sampling.

Much of today's chemical water quality monitoring still relies on samples collected at intervals, which Ofwat says provides only occasional snapshots and can delay detection of pollution events. Mode Labs says continuous autonomous monitoring can give water companies a clearer, ongoing picture of changing conditions to support earlier intervention and better-targeted investment.

Dean James, chief executive of Mode Labs, said the company's ambition is "to replace occasional snapshots of river health with a continuous picture of what is happening across rivers and sewer networks," adding that Ofwat's support allows it to "accelerate the route towards commercial deployment." Jo Jolly, director of innovation at Ofwat, said the finalist cohort shows that "tackling the climate and nature crises isn't limited by intellect or creativity," with the challenge now being to get those ideas "delivering impact on the ground."

Up to 10 of the 20 finalists will be selected in April 2027 to receive up to £550,000 each for further development, alongside five months of non-financial support and sector mentorship.

For the sector, Mode Labs' award shows regulators increasingly using seed funding to pull technology from outside the water industry into pollution monitoring, rather than relying solely on incumbent suppliers to close the detection gap.

Source: watermagazine.co.uk / begbroke.ox.ac.uk / ofwat.gov.uk / bmmagazine.co.uk