The Water Council has opened the application process for its Pilot Deployment Program, which helps businesses of all sizes as they advance their research and prototypes into products ready for market.
The program works with council member businesses to transform their research and prototypes into what the council describes as “real world pilot project demonstration sites for practical application.” The project gives companies and professionals in the water technology space a foundation to develop products that enhance water quality or quantity efforts.
The Water Council launched the Pilot Deployment Program early in the year with a Clean Technology & Innovation grant from Wells Fargo. In August, the program received a boost in funding with a new partnership between the council and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewerage District and the Fund for Lake Michigan. The partnership guaranteed $600,000 to the pilot program over two years.
“The Pilot Deployment Program reaffirms an incredibly important area of our mission – to improve world water health,” Dean Amhaus, president and chief executive officer of The Water Council, said in a statement. “This joint support and funding to help develop and validate new, cutting-edge products, will unleash a new wave of water technology innovation.”
The council is now calling for program applications within three focus areas – intelligent stormwater green infrastructure, stormwater quality and stormwater quantity.
Projects enrolled into the pilot program must work to achieve water solutions through innovation and with business models that are cost efficient and scalable.
Program applications, available online, are due by Friday, Oct. 30.
A panel of experts will select program participants. The Water Council will announce participants in December. The number of participants will depend on the kinds and quality of entries.
