The role of innovation in advancing understanding of hydrological processes

Innovation and understanding hydrological processes are intimately linked. Existing research has demonstrated the role of technological, societal, and political drivers in shaping and delivering new understandings in hydrological processes. In this paper we pose three research questions to explore how innovation can further our understanding of hydrological processes, if working towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs) provides a helpful focus, and whether specific mechanisms can be used to facilitate innovation and research into hydrological processes. First, we examine key aspects of innovation and explore innovation in the context of water security. We then present a series of innovation projects to determine their effectiveness in delivering innovation in managing hydrological processes, but also their contribution to scientific understanding. Our research suggests that product and process innovation were more closely related to increasing scientific understanding of hydrological processes than other forms of innovation. The NE Water Hub demonstrated that the design of the innovation ecosystem was crucial to its success and provides a model to integrate innovation and research more widely to further scientific understanding and deliver behaviour change to address the SDGs.


| INTRODUCTION
Innovation and understanding of hydrological processes are intimately linked. Innovation is defined as the use of a new idea, which might include creative thoughts, new devices or new methods. Innovation in hydrological processes has frequently been viewed as developments in sensing systems, adoption of multidisciplinary perspectives in tackling earth observation, or opportunistic use of measurements and developments in computing power (Tauro et al., 2018). This view is founded on the notion that technological developments bring new understanding of hydrological processes. Research has also embraced approaches such as citizen science and participatory research that encourages the use of less traditional forms of data collection and recognizes alternative sources of knowledge (e.g., Rollason, Bracken, Hardy, & Large, 2018;Watson & Howe, 2006).
Research has also demonstrated how the progress of hydrological science has been brought about by the integration of technical opportunities with societal needs (Sivapalan & Blöschl, 2017). In this alternative view the driver delivered by societal needs has provided the context for developing new knowledge but has also given an opportunity for application of new understandings in hydrological processes. Sivapalan and Blöschl (2017) proposed six eras of research in which the interaction of new technologies, new ideas and changing societal needs has played out to deliver a step change in understanding hydrological processes (Table 1). The current era is that of co-evolution, driven by human need and supported by big data.
Across research and higher education there is interest in fostering effective collaboration between universities and business. There is intense political scrutiny and encouragement to make this happen with numerous government-led reviews and changes in governance and funding support (Dowling, 2015;Hillier et al., 2019). The Triple Helix is one approach to conceptualizing the interaction between university-industry-government that has been proposed as key to improving the conditions for innovation in a knowledge-based society (Etzkowitz, 2003). The drivers for increased collaboration include the aspiration to convert excellence in research into business success, realizing the goals of universities to positively affect society through their research, economic growth and the increased capacity and capabilities of workers in both research and business (D'Este & Perkmann, 2011;Dowling, 2015;Lam, 2011). Debate continues about how to best incentivize, deliver, monitor and support such a change with a focus on both the motivators and barriers to such working (Hillier et al., 2019). In some cases collaborations have established incubators (as actual physical spaces) to promote innovation in water use and security, for example, the Water Council, a Wisconsin, USbased partnership of government, public sector, and universities within the state aims to promote "freshwater innovation" (Water Council, n.d.).
Existing research has thus demonstrated the role of technological, societal and political drivers in shaping and delivering new understandings in hydrological processes. In this paper we pose three research questions to explore in more depth how innovation can further our understanding of hydrological processes: (a) How does innovation increase our understanding of hydrological processes?; (b) Can working towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs) motivate innovation to drive research into hydrological processes? and (c) Can we develop new mechanisms to encourage innovation to increase our knowledge of hydrological processes? First we examine key aspects of innovation and explore innovation in the context of water security.
Water security was selected since it is a pressing challenge and explicitly documented in the SDGs. We then present a series of innovation projects, using the case study approach, to determine their effectiveness in delivering innovation in managing hydrological processes, but also their contribution to scientific understanding. We conclude by proposing an approach for interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at increasing innovation in hydrological processes at regional scales that challenges "business as usual" in water related organizations. Insights reveal how engagement with innovation processes generate positive outcomes for innovation and research.

| Types of innovation
The fundamental definition of innovation was developed by Schumpeter (1934) who defined "innovations" as new combinations of production factors including the production of new goods, the introduction of new processes, the opening of new markets, the access to new sources of raw materials and intermediates, or the reorganization of an industry. Contemporary definitions have evolved this fundamental meaning, for instance Malerba (2000), to acknowledge that many innovations consist of new combinations of existing knowledge, involve new organizational forms, or the opening of new markets. Innovation can also be radical or incremental (Martin, 2016;Rossi, 2002). The concept of innovation is no longer seen as the simple application of codified knowledge, but as a process of creation of new, often tacit, knowledge (Rossi, 2002), including social change (Murray, Caulier-Grice, & Mulgan, 2010) and invisible innovation (Martin, 2016).
A range of types of innovation have been identified, including (George, McGahan, & Prabhu, 2012;Phills, Deiglmeier, & Miller, 2008;Yao, Li, & Weng, 2018): • Product innovation: the creation and subsequent introduction of a good that is either new, an improved version of previous goods or services or the addition of a new feature to an existing product.
• Process innovation: continuous improvement in the combination of facilities, skills, and technologies used to produce, deliver, and support a product or provide a service.
• Service innovation: exceeding customer expectations.
• Management innovation: evolution and change in business strategies, systems and structures. Management innovation does not necessarily imply changes in the product or even in the production process, but in the way it is brought to the market.
• Open innovation: working beyond boundaries and collaborating globally.
T A B L E 1 Eras of understanding in hydrological processes proposed by Sivapalan and Blöschl (2017)

| Innovation in hydrological processes
All types of innovation have been applied to, and in turn furthered, research in hydrological processes with some countries more innovative than others, especially those driven by challenges of water security (Table 2). Australia has many examples of management, service and open innovation to collaboratively manage water resources effectively across many stakeholders (Ayre & Nettle, 2017;Prosser et al., 2015). Singapore has driven product and management innovation to secure drinking water supply, integrating new technologies with new integrated methods of delivery (Hsien et al., 2019;Noguchi et al., 2019). There are also innovative examples of managing water resources post conflict in war torn countries such as Afghanistan (Habib et al., 2013). Hence water scarcity from many different causes has been a driver for innovation but also increased understanding of hydrological processes. Many of these innovations operate at large scales and are initiated by governmental and national funding drivers around management and social innovation, except for some product innovation which has been embedded through uptake of technological developments.
Different forms of innovation can lead to increased understanding of hydrological processes in a range of ways (

| EXPLORING INNOVATION IN HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES
To examine the ways in which innovation can be used to improve understanding of hydrological processes, we established an open innovation model for collaboration. The aim of this model was to develop novel solutions for managing hydrological processes. We used the case study method to allow an in-depth study of individual, group, organisational, and/or business processes through real-life events (Yin, 2009). This approach permitted researchers to explore the unfolding and overlapping stories of innovation and learning within each case depicted, including those across the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels and with multiple actors (Schwandt & Gates, 2018). The NE Water Hub aimed to deliver a collaborative network of support and innovation through a series of activities ( Figure 1):

| Project background
• Developing and rolling out opportunities for SMEs to respond to commercial challenges in the water sector through the partner organisations;

T A B L E 2 Examples of innovation in hydrological processes
Water resource challenge Solution

Product innovation
Water conservation in Indonesia Two types of domestic recharge wells were designed based on the hydrological data in Denpasar City-Indonesia. Both can meet the water demand of households (Sudiajeng, Wiraga, Parwita, & Santosa, 2017).
Managing storm water runoff Technical implementation of a near-real-time location and temporally aware sensor network to monitoring permeable paver runoff (Rettig, Khanna, Beck, Wojcik, & McCane, 2016).
Clean drinking water supply in Singapore Use of polymeric OF membrane in drinking water plants to produce high quality water while requiring a smaller resource footprint (Noguchi et al., 2019).

Process innovation
The evaluation of changes in ecosystem services of catchments on the EU DESSIN project: EU framework developed with a specific focus on freshwater ecosystems to allow for a more detailed exploration of practical implementation issues (Anzaldua et al., 2018).

Management of post-conflict water resources, Afghanistan
Mainstreaming IWRM-SEA coalescence to bridge institutional gaps for better feedback between local and national water stakeholders, providing improved delivery of water services to sustain post-conflict socioeconomic recovery and promote environmental stewardship (Habib et al., 2013).

Soil and water conservation, Tanzania
Rethinking approaches for cascading proven innovations (such as terraces in vulnerable areas) rather than on generation of new technologies (Tumbo, Mutabazi, Byakugila, & Mahoo, 2011).

Service innovation
Evolving farm management practices to improve water quality of the Great Barrier Reef Growers were supported by trialling new concepts by an experienced team including farm extension and agronomic service providers, economists, suppliers, environmental consultants and communications specialists (Rouse & Davenport, 2017).

Adopting source control interventions by water and sewerage companies, England and Wales
Regulation must (a) generate awareness of a performance gap so as to set an agenda for change and (b) create possibilities for implementation of innovation through enabling use of source control interventions where appropriate (Spiller, McIntosh, Seaton, & Jeffrey, 2015).
Storm water management, Melbourne Design innovations, new catchment planning approaches, new best practice objectives, and new government policies to collectively change approaches to storm water management (Prosser, Morison, & Coleman, 2015).

Farm irrigation, Queensland
An agri-environmental incentive scheme was used to support on-farm implementation of environmentally sensitized irrigation practices using innovation brokers (Hood, Coutts, & Hamilton, 2014).
Water resources management through formal water rights and water fees systems, Tanzania A mix of formal and traditional systems improved village-level water management services and reduced intra-scheme conflicts and water rights brought abstractions into line with allocations (Mehari, Koppen, McCartney, & Lankford, 2009).
Water scarcity in Singapore Introduction of a diversified water cycle including; (a) water from local catchment (stormwater collected and stored in reservoirs), (b) imported water (from Johor river), (c) desalinated water, and (d) NE Water (highly purified reclaimed water) (Hsien, Low, Fuchen, & Han, 2019).

Modernization of irrigation system in the Murray
Darling Basin, Australia.
New joint strategic actions and new understandings, alliances, and roles between people and institutions for addressing irrigation modernization were crucial to establishing resilience assessment tools to change irrigation practices (Ayre & Nettle, 2017).
Collaborative water management, Norway. New multilevel networks established in catchment areas, cutting across municipal, regional and national borders to establish common platforms of understanding to drive collaborative management (Hanssen, 2015).
Water resources management, South Africa. Participatory monitoring of hydrological processes with a local community precipitated a learning opportunity and instilled a sense of ownership and management of natural resources (Kongo, Kosgei, Jewitt, & Lorentz, 2010).

Social innovation
Governance of water resources, Australia. Water Governance Research Initiative (WGRI) Australia: A learning system to provide opportunities for conversations, learning and reflection to emerge to manage water (Rubenstein, Wallis, Ison, & Godden, 2016). (Continues) • Facilitating knowledge and technology transfer through partnership working between traditionally unconnected business sectors and research institutes in the region; • Access to opportunities to test products in real world settings, business support, mentoring, networking events and finance to develop and test new innovations supporting delivery from concept to commercial product launch; • Access to national and global networks and markets for future innovations and collaborations supporting the region's innovative ambitions and growth potential.
• A direct link to university-based research.
To drive the innovation system, staff from each organisation joined the project team on a fractional basis and co-located in the NE Water Hub offices alongside Water Hub staff employed specifically by the funding at Durham University. The project team members met on a regular basis across the triadic spheres of the project partners.
The project was overseen by an Advisory Board that met quarterly and a Management Board that met monthly to provide oversight and decision-making support for the project. While some elements of the project-innovation partnerships, grants, business support, and innovation events-were delivered more easily, the testing facility aim proved more of an ongoing challenge. Testing was achieved at specific sites, though it was not as widespread as the project team had hoped.
This may be attributable to the additional resources required (time, money) and the complexities of trialling early-to-mid stage prototypes in the real-world. Schemes based on co-construction by local players and researchers aimed at encouraging a vision of innovation on a global scale and in the long-term, well beyond the conception phase (Levain, Vertès, Ruiz, & Delaby, 2014).
Managing non-point source pollution Enabling social and institutional arenas to support emergent and adaptive management structures, processes and innovations is vital (Patterson, Smith, & Bellamy, 2015).

Innovation through water incubators
The BREW accelerator "The Water Council's BREW is the world's foremost freshwater business accelerator; connecting start-ups with resources, stimulating water-related innovation and bringing new, game-changing technologies to market in pursuit of real-world solutions to global freshwater challenges." (Water Council, n.d.) collaborations; four SMEs brought new products to market and an additional 12 brought new-to-firm products. Seven new jobs were created through the project and 51 SMEs were provided with at least 12 hours of business engagement and support. Examples of products The team sought to deliver open and inclusive events and where possible, achieve gender balance, although this was not always achieved.
While no specific gender, ethnicity or disability data was collected by the project on SME ownership, the SME beneficiary list reveals that only 20% of the key contacts for the Water Hub project were female (Ratnatunga, 2020). The project therefore mirrored the demographics of the sectors it was working in, though it actively strove to improve on those demographics as much as possible.

| THE NE WATER HUB INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM
The NE Water Hub engaged with a number of innovation types across the breadth of the project, aimed at facilitating innovation including product pitches, challenges, and funded grant schemes ( and open challenges focused more specifically on product and process innovation. Learning from the NE Water Hub suggests it is possible to tailor activities to target specific innovation types, but that encouraging many different types of innovation was readily achievable and desirable.
Sections 4.1-4.3 outline specifically highlighted activities delivered to support different types of innovation and their outcomes in more detail.

| Process innovation
The management of urban drainage is a critically important challenge and developments in hydrological processes are key in managing extremes of rainfall (Chocat, Krebs, Marsalek, Rauch, & Schilling, 2001;Fletcher, Andrieu, & Hamel, 2013 installing and monitoring innovative water infrastructure solutions in a study area around a "heavily modified" river with "moderate" ecological status (Environment Agency, 2020) ( Figure 2). In addition to the environmental drivers, there were many socio-economic factors driving investment. The university coordinated a number of soft market events to facilitate collaboration between SMEs who could, in part, deliver the tender. As a result, a team of five businesses were brought together to retrofit water attenuation features, install technology to monitor performance and establish an engaged community group to support further investment in green infrastructure. Research supported the experimental design, deployment of sensors and analysis of data. Consultations and planning involved representatives from the water utility, the local authority, the environmental regulator and the team carrying out the civil engineering and groundworks. A programme of community engagement was undertaken alongside the structural work; community "champions" were established, to encourage the community to participate in informal drop in events (including gardening and maintenance of sustainable drainage features), and training and education around how to use the digital interface.
This collaboration demonstrates "process innovation" and how partnership working can increase capacity and resources available to public and private sector organisations, through access to facilities, technologies and perspectives they would not ordinarily be privy to. This case also highlights the importance of public buy-in for the likelihood of success of a holistic solution to a multi-faceted challenge. Community engagement with the new water infrastructure was mixed: the large group of "champions" were highly engaged, but this engagement was not widespread throughout the community. Some residents expressed concern over the maintenance and adoption of the new infrastructure, which is, unfortunately, a common theme for sustainable drainage systems (Melville-Shreeve et al., 2018). Better integration of the community into the innovation process, from the conceptual stage through to delivery, may help to ensure that deployed solutions are locally sustainable by aligning environmental (and government) priorities with community aspirations. In light of securing the tender and community feedback on products rolled out, some product evolution was also undertaken by some of the SMEs involved.
The scientific learning that resulted from the tender primarily focused on the challenges with quantitatively evidencing the benefits of SuDS. This included signal obstacles in wireless telecommunication services and logistical constraints of installing sensors in the drainage network. These challenges provide further opportunities to innovate to facilitate data collection on SuDS in urban environments. Qualitative support for partnership working was deemed to be crucial to increase the capacity for delivering SuDS and improving the likelihood of uptake. Widespread stakeholder support and community buy-in were found to be a solution to address the ongoing challenges faced with the adoption of property level SuDS.

| Product innovation
In 2018, a collaboration between the NE Water Hub and an SME launched an open call to develop a "smart" upgrade to an existing product.
The call sought to find a collaborative partner from the North East's established digital sector to co-create a data collection, monitoring and control system for a sustainable drainage system, designed to manage rainwater run-off from domestic, commercial and industrial roofs.
Research supported the experimental design and project plan. The NE Water Hub facilitated meetings and knowledge sharing, between potential collaborators to find a hardware and software provider who met all of their criteria. The NE Water Hub supported the SME's joint application for funding for phase one prototype development through the "matched grant scheme" offered by the project. Funding was awarded and research supported the two businesses to develop and integrate the hardware and software necessary to collect quantitative data on product performance.
This included integrating sensors to measure: soil moisture, water flow rate, and volume of water attenuated in real time. A bespoke weather station was linked with the product to enable the correlation of performance with particular storm events. Finally, the technical architecture required to store, transfer and analyse the collected data was developed. This study provided an evidence base from which the SME can further market their existing product, but also delivered additional features (such as the potential to control the product remotely based on the incoming data) which may expand the market interest in other, newer versions of the product. This phase one trial has seen a considerable advance in technology readiness level (TRL). The prototype (Figure 3) was validated in the laboratory (TRL4) and a relevant (household) location (TRL5). A full-scale technology demonstration, to evaluate the product in four different geographic regions of the UK is planned for 2020, taking this product innovation one step closer to commercialisation (TRL6). Research support is ongoing for experimental design, data collection and analysis.
This case study demonstrates product innovation but highlights how management innovation was also crucial to increase the TRL level.
The outcome of the collaboration will be a new SuDS product on the open market. Like many SuDS solutions, this innovation will reduce the F I G U R E 3 Schematic of the smart rainwater planter installed in phase 1 prototyping trials. The existing downpipe (1) is adapted to divert into the planter. There is an integrated weather station (2) which collects temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and rainfall data. Sensors for soil moisture (3) and stored water level (4) are integrated within the planter. The device also contains plants (5), an overflow pipe (6), and flow monitoring (7) on the outflow pipe (8). Any rainwater which is not attenuated or used by the plants is discharged to nearby rain gardens, pervious paving or the sewer network quantity, and increase the quality, of storm water runoff. However, it enables both a proactive and reactive approach to managing urban water resources in extreme conditions. The integration of sensors and the interpretation of multiple data streams enables smart, informed decision making on the timing and quantity of stormwater discharge to the sewer network. This enables dynamic management of the infrastructure's capacity and could lead to considerable reductions in CSO spills. To evolve the product new data sets were created including rainfall, temperature, soil moisture and water transfer within the product. Analysis of this data provided new understanding of hydrological processes at the micro scale in urban environments.

| Management innovation
The NE Water Hub pioneered two events where SMEs were able to "pitch their products" to developers in the NE. One pitch event enabled SMEs to showcase products for controlling runoff and increasing water (and energy) efficiency in a large warehouse development. The second event, for a small-scale cafe development, sought SuDS solutions and products to improve water efficiency and promote water reuse (Table 4). These pitching opportunities encouraged evolution and change in business strategies that would benefit those responsible for design and project management, making them aware of alternative solutions that could be used to manage water resources.
Some of the products pitched were new to market looking for test sites and/or commercial uptake, others were more established, with the SMEs seeking to increase their share of the market. This "pitch my product" process was a new way to evaluate options for technological solutions from a range of suppliers, but also brought collaborators together in new ways.
To facilitate the pitches a design brief was written in collaboration between researchers and the sponsor organisation, this outlined the specifications of the development and the types of water resource challenges that the developers were keen to address. A call was issued using the NE Water Hub network for pitches that mapped onto the agreed scope. The call was followed by a pitch event for selected submissions that met the agreed criteria to showcase products to a judging panel that comprised the sponsor organisation and relevant NE Water Hub partners. The judging panels at both events included developers, construction contractors, project leads, engineering consultants, local authorities and researchers. Lastly, pitches were judged and open discussions held between the judging panel about relevance, fit and potential of the products to the design brief. Contact was then facilitated between the developer and SMEs so the sponsor could follow up with any products in which they were interested. Outcomes of the "pitch my product" session for the warehouse development did not result in any products being included in the advertised opportunity, but the developers followed up with five SMEs who pitched for other developments. The pitch for the cafe development resulted in conversations with three products for the cafe, but also follow up with one more SME for a separately funded project.
These pitch events provided those present with a new method for evaluating best practice, introduced them to technological solutions with which they were previously unfamiliar. This example of management innovation demonstrates evolution and change in business strategies rather than development of new products, but also encompasses open, social and inclusive innovation. This test case demonstrates the potential for management innovation in the water sector and the effectiveness of "pitch my product" opportunities for both developers and SMEs. The pitch events did not lead directly to evolution of understanding of hydrological processes but did increase T A B L E 4 Details of the pitch my product events

Development Warehouse Cafe
Scale 2.5 million square foot regional/national distribution centre accommodating 1,000 staff and a fleet of HGVs/ delivery vehicles.
A visitor and events hub including a café, six public toilets and three staff toilets.
Key water resource challenges 1. Manage runoff from hard-standing 2. Reduce water-related risk (e.g., leaks, burst etc within the building) 3. Prevent pollution incidents into nearby waterbody 4. Improve building water efficiency 1. Reduce water use in the café & public toilets 2. Encourage rainwater harvesting for nonpotable use 3. Promote biodiversity through green spaces 4. Reduce waste 5. Connect communities through smart technology Number of pitches submitted 15 12 Number of pitches selected to present 8 9 Number of pitches followed up for original development 0 3 Number of pitches followed up for inclusion in other developments 5 1 the appreciation of societal benefits of more effective management of water resources, which in turn might lead to future product evolution. which encouraged them to support product testing, share knowledge and data to support product development and to purchase new products. Innovation was a useful way to engage partners in research.

| DISCUSSION
Our research demonstrates that innovation in hydrological processes crosses all types of innovation. Some of the activities we organized targeted specific types of innovations (e.g., grants, specific organisational challenges), but others embraced a greater range of innovation types and could be designed purposefully to do this (e.g., product pitches and tenders). Outcomes of the NE Water Hub have included changing behaviour and adapting processes within partner organisations, the willingness of partners to look beyond their usual supply chains for solutions, an interest in reflecting on best practice to find more innovative solutions and new research. These outcomes will hopefully feedback into continued support for future innovation ecosystems and research.
Based on learning from the NE Water Hub (Figure 4)  This win-win way of working ensured that expert knowledge from organisational perspectives was available to those developing innovations for managing hydrological processes and that innovations were taken up by partners (including research opportunities).
The model outlined in Figure 4 has the potential to be applied in other markets, sectors or countries interested in applying a Water Hub approach to water sector smart specialization that integrates innova- However, while there is evidence of good practice from the NE Water Hub, challenges and difficulties were also experienced. Connections between projects were often fragmented or lost due to project and staff turnover. Poor communication across networks and systems of innovation were also evident that disconnected organisations from innovation and/or research. Organisational processes regularly presented challenges; regulatory and legal processes made it difficult to share data, organisational inertia meant new practices and products could not always be taken advantage of and long term agreements with companies to deliver products and services stifled innovation. These disconnects can render systems of innovative practice and the "learning environment" that Etzkowitz (2014)  detailed evidence to be collected and outputs predominantly focused on businesses. It is notable that the project lead and the new staff appointed to the project were all female. The team benefitted from strong communication, collaborative and organisation skills alongside research expertise in hydrological processes, the water sector and digital skills. The ability to flex and evolve were crucial to enable the team to deliver the project. This demonstrates that there are stories to tell around the opportunities and enjoyment that can be a part of innovation in the water sector and the danger in "over-privileging" innovation and the water sector as a site of "hyper-masculinity." We hope to add our voices to those promoting a more inclusionary set of images and practices. Future projects should work to ensure inclusive approaches to both the methods of innovation research within the hydrological field but also to welcome a wider range of perspectives and creative approaches to ensure innovation is included and truly embedded in the field.

| CONCLUSIONS
Innovation and understanding of hydrological processes are intimately linked. Innovation is central to delivering behaviour change to address the SDGs but can also play a role in furthering scientific understanding of hydrological processes. Many countries have established large scale investment in accelerator and incubator programmes to help deliver these innovations (USA, Singapore, Australia and Sweden). The challenge now is to develop new ways of working to innovate at more local and regional scales, ensuring innovation and research support each other. All types of innovation can support management of hydrological processes and the case study methodology provided a useful mechanism for tracing and articulating these forms of innovation in hydrological processes. Different activities support different types of innovation, for instance, tenders and small grants tended to lead to product and process innovation, but product pitches were more important for cascading solutions and increasing their uptake by partners. Product and process innovation were more closely related to increasing scientific understanding of hydrological processes than other forms of innovation. The NE Water Hub demonstrated that the design of the innovation ecosystem was crucial to its success and delivering behaviour change within organisations. It can be used as a model to roll out trusted ecosystems to integrate innovation and research more widely to further scientific understanding and deliver behaviour change to address the SDGs.