Onewater

At a time of growing disconnect from nature and water crises flaring up around the world, humanity is stronger when it sees the significance of water as a key component of life.

Onewater shares knowledge with those who are typically excluded from accessing it. We aim to reestablish the connection between the public, organisations, and leaders, highlighting the fundamental importance and beauty of water. Our goal is to stimulate water-positive and climate-resilient decision-making that aligns harmoniously with nature, local communities, and the economy.

Our origins

Onewater, initially called Water Science Policy, was founded by a graduate cohort of the University of Oxford’s School of Geography and the Environment in 2020. It is a lockdown baby that was conceived by former students who wanted to create an engaging and accessible platform for water-related content to bridge the many science-policy gaps. The initial WordPress blog featured contributions from students, professors, artists, and development professionals. As of 2021, Onewater is registered as a social enterprise in Germany.

Over time, it became evident that the name ‘Water Science Policy’ worked against our aim of bridging barriers to knowledge on water through accessible science communication. So, we changed our name to emphasise the fact that previously distant sectors must work together, countries must collaborate, and science and policy must unite. It is only when we work as ‘one’ that we can truly adapt to the global challenges of climate change, rapid urbanisation, and population growth.

‘Onewater’ also embodies the unity of all people and forms of water along with its interconnections with every part of life, particularly health, energy, food, a thriving environment, and peace and security.

Our services

We catalyse action through inspiring stories that reshape your perception of Earth’s most vital element. Our services, found at the intersection of content creation, design, research, data, and training, bridge the gaps between knowledge and action.

Onewater has been involved in projects for a range of clients, from which we cross-fund as much of our arty, fun, investigative, and multilingual work as possible. Explore some of our initiatives and portfolios if you would like to work with us.

KNOWLEDGE - PERCEPTION - WILLINGNESS - ACTION

Our contribution

We believe in everyone’s right to openly share and access water-related data, tools, opinions, and journalism. As an independent social enterprise with a large volunteer base, we offer professional copy-editing services and related translations in up to 10 languages free of charge. We help your stories and knowledge reach a global audience. Everyone is invited to contribute and share their stories. All of our content is shareable and reusable under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). It is also registered at Crossref, so you can formally cite your work with a DOI.

In all our work, we strive to bridge four systemic barriers:

Paywalls: Onewater bridges academic and other institutional paywalls by working with universities, researchers, journalists, professionals, and citizens to generate new knowledge and share their expertise in a free, accessible, and inclusive way.

Language: Onewater bridges language barriers by translating all its content in up to 10 languages. We go above this number when possible. Overall, this allows close to 80% of the world’s population to access water-related content in their native language. Onewater’s translations are often the first time that water-related stories and science are available in certain languages.

Society-Science-Policy: Onewater bridges Society-Science-Policy barriers by promoting highly technical, dense topics into formats which are visually attractive and easy to digest. We also disseminate our content to the wider public through interactive websites, art, video, text, and events, including movie nights, and pub quizzes.

Echo chambers: Onewater bridges echo chambers by engaging with a diverse set of stakeholders, including professionals from other sectors, artists, photographers, journalists, activists, politicians, and the general public – online and offline. We strive for interest, not just awareness.