{"id":104894,"date":"2020-03-28T15:29:23","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T15:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/?p=104894"},"modified":"2024-07-05T16:46:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T16:46:47","slug":"analysis-of-water-sector-innovation-enables-future-water-association-to-make-data-driven-industry-changing-recommendations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/intellectual-property\/blog\/analysis-of-water-sector-innovation-enables-future-water-association-to-make-data-driven-industry-changing-recommendations\/","title":{"rendered":"Derwent analysis of water sector innovation enables Future Water Association to make data-driven, industry changing recommendations"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past Sunday (March 22, 2020) was World Water Day 2020, a day to reflect about water and climate change and how the two are inextricably linked. Climate change will affect water sources, and using water more efficiently can help to reduce greenhouse gases.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Following a successful engagement with Derwent\u2122, a Clarivate Analytics company, to assess innovation intensity within the water sector, Future Water Association (FWA) presented data-driven, industry changing recommendations to an influential audience at its \u201cTransformation of the Water Sector\u201d event held at the Institution of Civil Engineers headquarters in London on Thursday, January 30, 2020.<\/p>\n

FWA engaged Derwent in response to the recent demand from Ofwat, the United Kingdom\u2019s economic regulator of the water industry , that water companies drive transformational change..<\/p>\n

Ofwat is requiring \u2018transformational change\u2019 to respond to the urgency of pressures facing the industry. For example, PwC, a leading industry commentator[1]<\/a>, has identified several pressures to innovate, including market forces, changing weather patterns and national expectations, as new \u2018smart\u2019 technologies, including digitization emerge.<\/p>\n

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Measuring research innovation<\/strong><\/p>\n

The United Kingdom water industry has always aspired to be at the forefront of innovation but there was little data to prove its position. The Derwent engagement set out to address this.<\/p>\n

A provisional look at scientific publication data suggests that the United Kingdom does play a leading role in original idea creation (see table 1).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Country\/region<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\nScientific publications (1996-2018)<\/strong>
\n\u201cwater science and technology\u201d<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
United States<\/em><\/td>\n113,316<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mainland China<\/em><\/td>\n51,662<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Germany<\/em><\/td>\n29,413<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
United Kingdom<\/em><\/td>\n28,300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Canada<\/em><\/td>\n21,305<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
France<\/em><\/td>\n20,104<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
India<\/em><\/td>\n19,290<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Australia<\/em><\/td>\n17,640<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Japan<\/em><\/td>\n14,330<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Spain<\/em><\/td>\n13,019<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Table 1<\/strong>. Scientific publications in \u201cwater science and technology.\u201d
\nSource: <\/strong>Web of Science, from Clarivate Analytics<\/span><\/p>\n

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While scientific publications demonstrate fundamental research, the more interesting question is how many of these ideas translate into industrial application with the funding behind them to generate commercial returns on the R&D investment, so the Derwent team turned to look at patent data.<\/p>\n

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Patent analysis reveals Mainland China\u2019s leadership in waste water management innovation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Using the Derwent World Patents Index<\/a>\u2122 (DWPI), the world\u2019s most comprehensive database of enhanced patent information, structured by inventions and our proprietary scoring methodologies, the Derwent team demonstrated that the United Kingdom produces a high quality portfolio of inventions when it came to established technologies in \u201cwaste water management\u201d (see Chart 1).<\/p>\n

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Chart 1. <\/strong>Quality score by country\/region portfolio in the field of \u201cwaste water management.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, the U.K. and other major global economies do not hold a similar \u00a0position when analyzing volume and growth of inventions. As demonstrated in Chart 2, the Derwent team\u2019s analysis of patented inventions from 2006 to 2018 in the field of waste water management revealed:<\/p>\n