Two Awesome Prize-Based Innovation Contests
There’s nothing like the lure of big money prizes to entice inventive brains to create novel and/or disruptive innovations. The premise is as old as the hills and today, it’s still a popular way to innovate.
Two of the most prominent prize competitions of the day are the £10 million Longitude Prize and GE’s $1 million ecomagination open innovation challenge to help accelerate technology development in Canada’s oil sands.
The Longitude Prize was launched by the UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron, and commemorates the 300th anniversary of the Longitude Act. In 1714, the British government challenged inventors to find a way of pinpointing a ship’s location at sea by knowing its longitude. It was one of the biggest scientific challenges of its day.
In keeping with this pioneering spirit, the British public was asked to vote on six challenges that they wanted to see solutions to. They were:
• Paralysis – how can movement be restored?
• Antibiotics – how can the rise of antibiotic resistance be prevented?
• Food – how can we ensure that everyone on the planet has nutritious sustainable food?
• Dementia – how can people with dementia live independently for longer?
• Flight – how can we zip across the world without damaging the environment?
• Water – how can we ensure that everyone has safe and clean water?
The winning challenge was antibiotics and a £10 million fund has now been set up to encourage people to solve the problem. There is a time limit of five years to develop a solution.
A Cleaner and Safer World
General Electric Company (GE) recently announced an ecomagination open innovation challenge worth roughly CAD$1 million. It is targeting two opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Canada’s oil sands (the third largest oil reserves in the world): new uses for waste heat and improved efficiency of steam generation.
GE is hoping that brilliant brains within and outside the industry will ideate and develop solutions. Winners of the challenge will be able to share up to $1 million in seed funding.
“Collaboration is key to solving big challenges,” said Elyse Allan, President and CEO GE Canada.
“GE recognizes that by working together, we can develop technology that will enable ongoing, responsible development of Canada’s oil resources.”
Reader Comments
i would like to enter both contests. send me the rules.
michael j mclaren
Posted by MICHAEL MCLAREN on September 4, 2014
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