Water BOOST Enabling Innovation for Future Ready Cities 2025

Figure 6 illustrates how Water-BOOST organizes these actors and their connections into a coherent operational framework. This layered representation helps clarify how different mechanisms – or enablers – operate across and within levels: –E1 represents governance enablers, connecting utilities (G1) with policy-makers and regulators (G2). –E3 captures the relationship between innovators (A1) and investors or accelerators (A2). –E2 and E4 serve as cross-level enablers, linking aquapreneurs with governance actors. –E5 reflects multistakeholder enablers – shared platforms, funding schemes or policy frameworks that engage all enabling stakeholders simultaneously and support systems-wide coordination.In parallel, supporting enablers (SE1, SE2, SE3) reflect how the knowledge and advocacy functions of academia and civil society interface with the core system. SE1 links S1 and S2 together, while SE2 and SE3 connect them to the core enabling stakeholders, strengthening alignment between community insights, research expertise and institutional action. Recognizing and mapping these distinct structural levels is central to the Water-BOOST methodology. It enables users to assess weaknesses or misalignments within the ecosystem and to identify interventions based on the specific type and level of enabler requiring support. The third principle of Water-BOOST recognizes that, while every city’s water innovation ecosystem is shaped by unique socioeconomic, institutional and infrastructural conditions, the core elements of the MVS – both stakeholder groups and enablers – can be adapted across contexts to reinforce local enabling environments. Functional partnerships, stakeholder configurations and enabler mechanisms that succeed in one setting can often be translated to address similar challenges elsewhere, provided local dynamics are carefully considered. This principle positions Water- BOOST as a tool for cross-city learning and adaptive innovation, enabling users to compare ecosystems, identify transferable features and adapt them to strengthen innovation capacity in new contexts.This approach draws on systems thinking, which highlights that while no two ecosystems are identical, their structures often exhibit recurring patterns and leverage points. By focusing on stakeholder roles and enabling functions (rather than specific institutions or governance models), Water-BOOST helps identify transferable ecosystem features that can be localized to strengthen innovation capacity. As shown in Figure 7, the toolkit examines each city’s MVS configuration to highlight focus areas and then supports targeted adaptation. MVS elements can be adapted across contexts Principle 3 Water-BOOST: Enabling Innovation for Future-Ready Cities 20