Water scarcity and management have emerged as critical issues across the globe, especially with climate change accelerating. According to the European Environment Agency, 12% of the population in Europe lives in areas at risk of flooding and some 30% of people in southern Europe face permanent water stress. As we know, technological innovation can play a major role in addressing these challenges.
The EPO’s Observatory on Patents and Technology has identified water innovation as one of its key topics this year and has recently published three new resources in the area of water technologies.
The EPO’s new study, entitled Innovation in water-related technologies uses international patent data to examine the developments and global trends in these technologies. Our new technology platform helps scientists and engineers more easily navigate the wealth of free patent information about water technologies available in our Espacenet database. Finally, we have added four new filters for water-related technologies to our free Deep Tech Finder tool, which connects investment-ready European startups with investors.
These three resources have been jointly developed by the Observatory, in co-operation with national IP offices in Europe and beyond. They aim to support inventors, researchers, companies and policymakers who are dealing with the critical challenges of water supply, management and security on the one hand, as well as the threats coming from flooding and coastal erosion on the other.
Some of the key findings of the study include:
- Europe leads global innovation in water-related technologies with 40% of all international patent families (IPFs), and exhibiting high specialisation in this technology area. The leading countries in Europe are Germany, France, the UK, but also Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Austria, and Finland.
- The number of newly published IPFs per year has been increasing from around 300 in the early 1990s to well over 1200 IPFs in the 2020s, triggered by evolving regulation and climate challenges. But innovation in water-related technology needs to grow even faster in the coming decades.
- Contributions from universities and public research organisations to water-related technologies have grown significantly, from under 5% of all IPFs in the 1990s to 14% by 2017-2021, with the most substantial academic contributions in potable water harvesting.