Research and analysis
Fibre in Water Project: evaluation
Evaluation of the Fibre in Water project to assess how the project was delivered and to understand the key challenges.
Documents
Details
This Fibre in Water project was led by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), and supported by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The project was awarded funding from HM Treasury’s Shared Outcomes Fund to allocate up to £4 million of R&D funding via an open competition.
Frazer Nash ran a process evaluation on behalf of DSIT to assess how well the project was delivered and to understand the key challenges. It included qualitative interviews with stakeholders and document review.
Key findings and lessons learnt included:
- Project delivery and decision-making throughout the project were effective. The decision not to proceed to Phase 2 was seen as correct, given the delivery challenges.
- There were challenges in getting the required regulatory approval for the technical solution, and there would have been value in adding regulatory expertise to the commissioning team or delivery consortium.
- More time could have been allowed for bids at competition stage, and a more formal relationship with the sole technology provider would have been beneficial for communication and collaboration between stakeholders.