IWN UPDATE
March 2025
Hi Everyone, welcome to the IWN March (wait, what, March already!) update.
2025 has certainly started with a bang with a number of new trials commencing, taking our current portfolio to 48 active projects. This month, we highlight a number of our recent trials and new projects that present opportunities to conduct a trial.
We are in the process of creating the IWN Prospectus to enable our members to identify IWN trial and pilot opportunities and also have visibility of previous trials that they may be interested in.
We are delighted to launch the new IWN Climate Resilience Program, led by Hayley Vinden from Barwon Water. This program broadens the scope of the previous Energy and Carbon program to include Climate Adaptation. The new program has 3 streams, Energy, Carbon and Climate Adaptation. We are grateful for the incredible work, energy and passion Steve Reddington contributed to the IWN Energy and Carbon program over many years and welcome Steve’s continuing contribution to the new program and his support of Hayley in her role as Program Manager.
We are equally delighted to launch the new IWN Connect Program, led by Alex Mobilia from Greater Western Water and supported by Amanda Cheang from South East Water. IWN Connect brings together the previous IWN Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration, and Alumni Programs to take a wholistic approach to sharing knowledge, learnings and facilitating connections across our membership, past, present and future. The team are busily organizing the 2025 IWN Members Conference. FutureReady – Resilience through Innovation will take place on 28 July. Registrations are now open here.
IWN Connect recently put out a call for mentors and mentees for the 2025 IWN Mentoring Program. We’ve had a brilliant response, so much so that we need some more mentors! To get involved in this tremendous initiative, register your interest here: Microsoft Forms.
Last year we established the IWN Weekly Updates at 830am every Wednesday morning to update Members on activities within the Programs and across IWN. We are resuming the IWN Updates series in the coming month – starting next Wednesday 12 March. Email enquiries@iwn.org.au if you would like to be invited.
The new IWN website is now in production. Featuring an enhanced and comprehensive members section that makes it easier access to trial reports, share knowledge and experiences, and hear about and join IWN events, as well as a more informative and engaging public site, we are aiming for launch late March/Early April.
I recently caught up with the 2024 Water Minister’s Climate Innovation Challenge winner, South East Water’s Dr Li Gao (middle) at the RMIT Labs. Li introduced me to Distinguished Professor Tianyi Ma (left) who showed me the prototype hydrogen generating photocatalytic cell array that is ready for scale up. It really is a game changer.
Distinguished Professor Tianyi Ma and Dr Li Gao with Jason Cotton
We wrapped up 2024 with a fantastic series of events, and we’re keeping that momentum going in 2025. To clarify what’s on offer, here’s a quick rundown of our different online sessions:
- Webinars – Get the latest updates on IWN projects, including trial progress, key learnings, and future opportunities.
- Lunch & Learn – Hear from industry peers on technology advances, partnership opportunities, and emerging innovations.
- Tech Talks – Learn from our partner organisations as they share insights on water utility projects, research breakthroughs, and new developments shaping the sector.
Last year, our Lunch & Learn series featured innovative companies presenting new technologies, many of which we’d love to support through trials. If you missed these sessions, check out the recordings below:
- IWN Lunch & Learn with Taggle – https://vimeo.com/1029493084/ab967ad432
- IWN Lunch & Learn with Liminal VR – https://vimeo.com/1046273139/5117a2522b
- IWN Lunch & Learn with Barwon Water and Fed Uni – https://vimeo.com/1023123548/2813dff49e
- IWN Lunch & Learn with Smart Build Tech – https://vimeo.com/1018153640/112743714e
- IWN Lunch & Learn with Kallipr – The Status Quo in Water Management and What’s in the Near Future – https://vimeo.com/1056257555/3080957137
If you’re interested in trialing any of the technologies discussed, please reach out to enquiries@iwn.org.au.
I look forward to hearing from you to discuss our trial opportunities.
Take care
JC
IWN Program Director
For more IWN updates, see the tiles below:
IWN Updates
FEBRUARY 2025
Hi everyone, welcome to the first IWN Update for 2025 and our first as part of the VicWater Update.
At the end of last year, I shared a reflection of 2024 with IWN Members. It was a year of exciting firsts, successful trials, welcomes, adoptions, and a refresh of our operating model and programs.
We welcomed Isobel Decru as our new Deputy Program Director. Isobel is no stranger to IWN, joining us from South East Water and the ARC Biosolids Centre at RMIT where she worked with IWN on the Pyroco Biosolids to Biochar project. We welcomed Victor Perton, Chief Optimism Officer at the Centre for Optimism and Director at Yarra Valley Water as the official IWN Ambassador. We also welcomed Kessia Thomson from Greater Western Water and Liz Rowland from South Gippsland Water onto the IWN Executive Team.
Among our firsts, we ran a data and analytics Hackathon focused on how we can use data and analytics to better care for our environment.
We launched 2 exciting circular economy initiatives – the Circular Economy Study Tours which will run a couple of times a year to visit and learn from organisations that reuse, recycle and harvest resources from waste streams, and launched our Circular Economy Podcast called the Ripple Effect – sharing insights and experiences from thought leaders in Circular Economy.
We delivered our first implemented Water Ministers Climate Innovation Challenge (WMCIC) Project. Winners of the 2023 WMCIC – Yarra Valley Water, Barwon Water and North East Water – have released a new guide and database of low-carbon concrete alternatives that are ready for immediate use in the Victorian water industry. You can find the guide at: https://vicwater.org.au/programs/low-carbon-concrete-mix-specification-tool/
We were also delighted that the Minister for Water announced a 3-fold increase in funding for her Challenge for 2024 and 2025.
We collaborated with WIOA to establish the Operators Trial Competition at the Victorian WIOA Conference. During the conference, Operators pitched to IWN their trial opportunities discovered at the WIOA Conference Trade Exhibition. Funded trials were announced at the conference dinner.
Our Annual Members Conference explored the theme of Collaborative Transformation through keynote addresses by our newest member GWMWater who presented on their digital transformation journey and by PUB Singapore who joined us in person to share how strategic collaborations are at the core of their transformation and innovation strategies.
If you’d like to catch up on the conference presentations and you work at an IWN member organisation, please drop us a line at enquiries@iwn.org.au for a link to the conference presentations. With the 2024 conference concluded, planning for the 2025 IWN Annual Conference is underway. Please save the date—28 July 2025. Further details and registration information will be available soon.
We continued to work on our portfolio of 44 active trials with the conversion of a number of completed trials to adoptions and strengthened our research partnerships to enable IWN to access leading edge research outcomes to transition into application trials.
We were delighted to be a collaboration partner with Barwon Water on the award of funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) of up to $3 million for the Green Oxygen for Wastewater Treatment project.
We continued to work on the IWN Operating Model to ensure our operations are lean and deliver the best possible value for members. Of note we:
- Established our Hub and Spoke operating model
- Launched of IWN Strategy on a Page
- Developed a set of IWN KPIs
- Improved our governance through refinement our investment management framework and the development of at trial services agreement
- Enhanced our Champions Program with a focus on leading and driving innovation including intrapreneurship skills
Looking forward, I am reminded of the lunar new year that we recently celebrated. The Year of the Snake is a time for growth, wisdom, intelligence and renewal – which beautifully describes the year ahead for IWN.
We have commissioned the development of a new website which will enhance members ability to access and share knowledge such as trial reports, video presentations and collaborate more effectively.
IWN will continue to work on developing our programs and their activities through alignment of our programs to members strategies to ensure we deliver value to our members and enhance our knowledge sharing systems and processes to more effectively facilitate knowledge sharing amongst our members.
We will continue to source and collaborate with strategic partners to deliver trial opportunities that bring global leading technology and innovation into the Victorian and Tasmanian water sectors that deliver real solution options to the challenges and opportunities within our sector.
2025 has started with a bang – join us at an IWN weekly update on Wednesday mornings to hear all about the tremendous work and opportunities happening in our programs. Watch your inbox for a link to our weekly updates soon. See you there.
Cheers
JC
For more IWN updates, see the posts below:
