Innovation Project CaSTCo Extended to Accelerate National Adoption of Citizen Science and Integrated Catchment Monitoring 

The Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative (CaSTCo) programme has secured a one-year extension from the Ofwat Innovation Fund, enabling it to scale the adoption of its framework and accelerate the next phase of integrated catchment monitoring across the UK. 

This ambitious collaboration, brings together the water sector, regulators, NGOs, and civil society and aims to ensure that by 2035 every river is monitored, understood, and cared for. 

The extension marks a critical transition from innovation to implementation. Over the coming year, CaSTCo will focus on practical demonstration, trust-building, and sector alignment, providing the evidence and confidence needed to embed a more integrated, data-driven approach to catchment monitoring and decision-making. This will support more effective action to improve river health nationwide. 

The programme will deliver a targeted set of activities designed to position CaSTCo’s approach as a scalable, low-risk pathway for integrating citizen-generated data into the water sector. Key areas of focus include: 

• National Citizen Science Accreditation Scheme 
  Building on regional pilots, this scheme will scale reliable monitoring and shared data collection, ensuring citizen science outputs are trusted, consistent, and accredited for operational use. 

• National Catchment Data System and Standards 
  A unified data platform and nationally consistent standards will be developed to support integrated catchment monitoring across the water environment. 

• National Catchment Coordination Council 
  A coordinated governance framework will be established to bring together catchment partners, regulators and decision-makers across the UK. The Council will help align evidence, priorities and actions from national policy through to local delivery, ensuring that data, standards and outcomes are consistent, scalable and effective. 

By combining citizen science with professional expertise, CaSTCo is already enabling communities and decision-makers to turn trusted data into action.  

Collectively partners across the water sector and communities have monitored more than 132,000 locations across England and Wales, while also co-developing the governance structures and shared platforms needed to scale this approach regionally and nationally.  

CaSTCo continues to grow its network of citizen scientists, with 36 groups actively monitoring waterways, improving data quality, and piloting one of the UK’s first certification schemes for citizen science. 

Jo Jolly, Director for Natural Assets, Environment and Innovation , OFWAT, says: Our rivers are among our most important natural assets, and it’s time we treated them as such. CaSTCo is doing more than creating a framework for citizen science; it is giving people a meaningful voice in the stewardship of the resources that sustain our lives and livelihoods. As momentum builds towards ending sewage pollution, reducing agricultural run-off and tackling chemical pollution, citizen participation will continue to be one of the most powerful forces for change. By giving everyone the tools, confidence and platform to understand and champion their local waterway, we not only transform how we manage river health, but how we all connect with and value our rivers. “ 

Louisa Simpson Brown, Nature and Catchment Strategy Manager at United Utilities says: “We are proud to be lead partner in the CaSTCo project and excited to see the impact that integrated catchment monitoring can have at a large scale. We have seen such positive outcomes at a regional scale, we believe this extension will allow this to be magnified and drive informed decision making by all key players in the water sector, leading to improvements in water quality for everyone.” 

Amina Aboobakar, Director of Strategy and Stewardship at The Rivers Trust, says:  “If we want healthier rivers, we need to understand much more about what is happening in them and around them. That means working together better and making sure the right information is available to the people making decisions. CaSTCo’s Roadmap for the Future gives us a practical way to do this. We have already seen how powerful this approach can be locally.  Now we have an opportunity to build something bigger: a joined-up national approach that brings together data, evidence and local knowledge to help rivers recover” 

ENDS Notes to editors: 

CaSTCo (the Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative) is a cross-sector programme helping communities, water companies, regulators, and researchers collect and use trusted data on water together. Funded through Ofwat’s Water Breakthrough Challenge and led by United Utilities with delivery organisations representing key players across the water sector, CaSTCo develops shared tools, data standards, and accreditation so citizen science can support real decisions about catchment health. Find out more at castco.org.