Our Changeprint
Our Changeprint can be measured by the increased flood resilience of small and medium enterprises in the Humber region; catalysing new products and services that tackle flood risk and mitigate damage for SMEs and for society more broadly; and increased readiness to address future flooding events due to climate change.
Our story
At the Flood Innovation Centre, our over-arching aim is to prevent and mitigate the impact of flood risk while encouraging economic growth amongst small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We do this principally through funded support packages for businesses to enable them to innovate new products and services that tackle the flood problem and help society become more flood resilient. By doing so we hope to help society cope better with our increasing flood risk due to climate change.
We are based at the University of Hull and are able to mobilise a wide range of academics specialising in diverse areas from flood risk management to logistics, marketing to machine learning, as part of our tailored support packages. We provide access to state-of-the-art prototyping and testing facilities as well as technical expertise, in order to bring these new business ideas to life.
We also create workshop programmes to raise awareness of opportunities within the flood resilience sector, which we target at various business sectors including construction, manufacturing, farming and community interest companies.
The Flood Innovation Centre receives funding from the European Regional Development Fund as well as backing from the University of Hull, allowing us to offer both our workshops and our tailored support packages at no cost to eligible businesses.
We're currently working with 'FloodJack' on their hydraulic technology for raising new build properties out of reach of flood waters; with Humberside Fire & Rescue Solutions on flood water testing by rescue service staff and community flood wardens; and with a number of other small and medium enterprises on individual flood innovations.
We also work closely with councils, NGOs and the insurance industry on innovative approaches to improving society's flood resilience. One such project is 'Mapping Flood Recovery Gaps', funded by the Aviva Foundation, which seeks to identify gaps in post-flood support in order to develop a practical framework to improve post-flood recovery. Initially focusing on the Humber region, the protocols and toolkits created by the project are intended to be transferable to other regions.
Our advice
We have built great relationships within the University and beyond, and constantly seek out new and innovative ways to achieve our project goals. A critical success factor is the flexibility to constantly assess and rethink the project – different factors will always come along to change the status quo and impact all of the assumptions that were made whilst the project was being designed. Sticking rigidly to a fixed idea won't help you or your intended beneficiaries.
In terms of what we would do differently, our funding restricts us to a limited geographic location. However, to grow such a necessary market, it would be preferable to be able to deliver to businesses anywhere in the UK or for others to copy what we're doing!
