The Great Innovation Challenge: How challenge prizes can kick-start the British economy
Lessons from the US experience with prizes These four case studies demonstrate how prizes have been used in different industries, by different funders and with different objectives. But they also have some clear common characteristics, which set them apart from what might have been achieved through other methods. All four created a clear vision – and transformed that into a legitimate pursuit. The Ansari X Prize proposed that private ventures could access space. The DARPA Grand Challenges created a new industry around driverless cars. The Wave Energy Prize created a bold vision of renewable energy. KidneyX is galvanising action around a clearly articulated problem. The prizes all set out a strong signal that their funder was taking the problem seriously and galvanised action around it. The high profile of these challenges prizes was essential to this success. All four provided credibility to a successful community of participants – and gave legitimacy to them as innovators. The Ansari X Prize helped generate $10 in outside investment for every dollar in prize money, a clear statement of confidence. The DARPA Grand Challenge gave visibility and opportunities to demonstrate to small and non-commercial teams. The Wave Energy Prize funded validation and testing of the competing technologies. And KidneyX helped connect innovators with regulators and patients to build their capacity. The broad cohort of teams guided through a challenge prize was essential to this success. Finally, all four used demonstrations as a way of building credibility around the problem and the innovators – but also around starting to shift systems. This varied from regulatory change in the case of the Ansari X Prize, to experimenting with autonomy in urban settings for the DARPA Grand Challenges, contributing to a broader policy goal around kidney health for KidneyX and creating a domestic technology base in wave energy for the Wave Energy Prize. The open demonstration, judging and awarding of challenge prizes – and the publicity surrounding them – were essential to this success.
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