Innovation Bounties

March 3rd, 2009

Posted by: admin

Some time ago I posted about prizes as a possible augmentation for research funding.  What I encountered recently online, InnoCentive’s Innovation Marketplace (H/T Science Cheerleader), might remind you of prizes, but is a bit different.  Once you register, you scan the lists of challenges, with corresponding awards ranging from $5,000 to $1 million, and take on those you’re interested in.  The individual projects are a bit on the small side when compared those sponsored by the X Prize Foundation and other organizations, but the scale of the projects (at least in terms of necessary resources) seems appropriate to the awards.  There’s also a lot more opportunities in a lot more fields.  InnoCentive is headquartered in the United States, and has received some venture capital funding to seed its rewards (some of those rewards are supported by foundation money).  It provides other functions than the challenges, and is focused on serving as a clearinghouse for both seekers and providers of innovations.

One Response to “Innovation Bounties”

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  1. CurtFischer Says:

    I’ve heard about these guys but had never really checked them out until this post.

    When I signed up to view some of the challenges, I was surprised to find in the fine print that the “Solvers” who proposed solutions also had to certify that the “Seekers” (the people with the money who need answers) would be legally unconstrained from implementing the proposed solution.

    I read this as a requirement that Solvers also do fairly complete freedom-to-operate analyses on their proposed solutions. If I’m reading the fine print correctly it would seem to me that almost none of the cash rewards are high enough to be worth the trouble: FTO analysis can be very expensive.

    I also wonder if in some jurisdictions it is required to have some kind of license to practice law to accept compensation for a freedom-to-operate analysis — I would love to find out more if anyone knows.