Trial Reservoirs Initiative is de-risking water sector pilots through US partnerships that support underserved communities and solve critical water challenges.
Building partnerships to scale Trial Reservoir’s global impact
As the Trial Reservoirs Initiative enters its fifth year of operation, we are continually humbled by the partnerships that have helped to scale this effort into one with truly global reach.
The Initiative exists to de-risk the piloting process for both vendors and end-users, accelerating innovation in the water sector around the world.
One of the main challenges we face is one of scale. Pilots and trials are inherently local: understanding how a technology can serve a specific use-case requires a deep understanding of local procurement rules, regulations, and site operating conditions. Yet the challenges we’re attempting to tackle – climate change, the circular economy, and environmental justice – are global in scope.
The Trial Reservoirs Initiative has successfully supported pilots in 21 locations, sharing a simple and flexible model for de-risking piloting that has connected with vendors and end-users from around the world. The story of how we’ve managed to do so draws on a network of partners that is both deep and broad.
Here are just a handful of the partners that we’ve worked with over the past year.
The Water Council
The Trial Reservoirs Initiative has partnered with The Water Council over the past two years to grow our impact within the Great Lakes Region of the United States.
The Water Council (TWC) is a hub dedicated to solving critical water challenges by driving innovation in freshwater technology and advancing water stewardship. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, TWC has global reach, promoting technologies to address sustainability challenges around the world.
In 2025, we shared technical insights into the role of piloting within the water innovation ecosystem with TWC’s supporters through their Nexus Sustainability Summit. Importantly, we also support TWC’s BREW 2.0 Accelerator by offering piloting best practices and resources to help grow innovative new startups from around the world. One of BREW 2.0’s 2025 alumni has even become part of the Initiative’s pipeline in the U.S.!
Vessel Collective
The Trial Reservoirs Initiative’s partnership with the Vessel Collective shows the power of diverse networks working together to reach an otherwise insurmountable goal.
Over 2.2 million people across the United States do not have access to clean running water or viable sanitation in their homes. The Vessel Collective is a group of organizations from the public, private, and non-profit sectors who have come together to close this water access gap for so-called WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene) communities from Appalachia to the Colonias.
The Trial Reservoirs Initiative presented at the Vessel Collective’s 2026 U.S. WASH Convening as part of a panel on the role of the innovation pipeline in supporting Technical Assistance (TA) providers for WASH communities. Well-managed technology trials allow underserved communities a seat at the technology innovation table alongside their more well-resourced peers, although strict guardrails must be put in place to ensure distributive and procedural justice.
Through Vessel, we continue to partner with TA providers from across the U.S., providing innovation consultation and knowledge sharing services to support underserved communities alongside our traditional Trial Reservoir offerings.
UpLink
Partnering with UpLink, the World Economic Forum’s early-stage innovation initiative, offers the Trial Reservoirs Initiative a broader opportunity to impact water innovation implementation around the world.
UpLink co-creates ecosystems that connect purpose-driven innovators with the partnerships, resources and capital they need to scale solutions for the markets and economies critical to a resilient, sustainable and prosperous world.
Over the last two years, the Trial Reservoirs Initiative has supported UpLink’s Aquapreneur Innovation Initiative, a five-year, CHF 15 million program dedicated to sourcing, funding, and scaling early-scale water startups. Through multi-stakeholder workshops and broader “calls for technology applications”, the Trial Reservoirs Initiative supports Aquapreneurs looking to take the next step into piloting and trialing.
As core partners in Uplink’s Water Innovation Working Group, Isle (and the Trial Reservoirs Initiative) also continues to collaborate with leaders across the industry to shape how technologies are sustainably deployed and scaled across geographies and sectors. We will be offering our insights as part of the World Economic Forum’s Water Innovation roundtable at New York Climate Week and at UpLink’s session on water innovation at the IWA World Water Congress.
As Trial Reservoir continues to scale, who should we talk to next? If you’d like to partner with us, you can find us at New York Climate Week on September 22nd, or reach out to Reshmina William (reshmina.william@isleutilities.com)