Solving Societal Challenges with Open Innovation

Published Jul-02-19

Breakthrough:
Combating the global illegal fishing trade, transforming how people find volunteering opportunities and other winning ideas at an open innovation challenge for social good.

Company:
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, United States

The Story:

One of the many advantages of open innovation is that it can bring creative minds together from diverse backgrounds to solve problems for the common good. From tackling the spread of diseases and providing better access to clean water to combatting climate change and improving employment opportunities, the wisdom of the crowd has been applied successfully to a range of social challenges.

In 2015, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) launched the Living Progress Challenge (LPC), an open innovation contest that tasked entrepreneurs across the globe with creating software applications and digital services to improve lives.

“The LPC is our open-source platform to identify solutions to problems, foot-printing energy efficiency and disrupting traditional philanthropy and partnerships,” said HPE CSO Lara Birkes.

Novel Ideas and Proposals

This open innovation challenge consisted of several phases, starting with a call for ideas and high-level concepts. More than 360 were received, and a variety of cash prizes were awarded. In the proposal phase, individuals and teams submitted 130 detailed proposals of how they would bring their ideas to life. At the end of this phase, 20 were selected to move into the design stage where participants were equipped with resources from HPE to create their prototypes.

From this group, ten were chosen to present their prototypes at the challenge finals. This resulted in the selection of four winners who worked directly with HPE and its partners to turn the prototypes into fully functional and deployable solutions.

The four overall winners were:

Detect IT: Fish – Using Trade Data to Fight Illegal Fishing

According to global estimates, more than 30% of all fish caught is illegal. This web-based tool was designed to help tackle the illicit fishing trade by identifying potential trade flows of illegal products based on inconsistencies in reported trade data of fisheries products between countries.

Helping People Increase their WORTH

An m-ledger mobile application for simple but reliable recordkeeping for community-based savings groups, helping them to increase their return on investment. The innovation is designed to help the more than 12 million adults around the world who are excluded from financial services. It does so by replacing paper-based ledgers and savings records which can take hours to fill in thereby helping savings groups to function more effectively. The app by nonprofit international development organization Pact is called MYWORTH.

MentorME: Connecting People to Better Lives

With a user-friendly gaming approach, this application provides matches between mentors and mentees based on a range of factors such as skills, interests, language and geography. An engaged adult mentor can be instrumental in helping struggling students successfully make it through high school.

Social Volunteer Discovery With All For Good

This is an internet hub to change the way people find volunteering opportunities. With machine learning and persuasive UX design, the aim is to revolutionize the way people are invited to help others, making it easier for them to connect with mentees.

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