When Peter Diamandis gave the $10 million Ansari X Prize to the SpaceShipOne crew in 2004, he did more than build excitement about private space travel. He reignited one of the most potent tools for fostering innovation and philanthropy. Now Diamandis is organizing similar prizes for other inventions: faster genome sequencing, more-fuel-efficient automobiles, a new lunar lander. And his approach has inspired other people to set up their own contests. “People have stopped taking the risks required,” Diamandis says. “I would not be surprised if, decades from now, we see multi-hundred-million-dollar purses, billion-dollar purses, because it’s a very efficient way of causing a breakthrough.” Nothing concentrates the mind like a big pile of cash.
– Adam Rogers
Peter’s Principles: How to use contests to spur innovation
1. Tell a story.
We make sure the rules for winning are very clear and that the teams are doing something with a dramatic finish.
2. Don’t aim too high – or too low.
With the Ansari X Prize, people said, “You should go to orbit.” I argued that was too big a first step; 100 kilometers was enough. A prize has to be hard but not impossible.
3. Portray the competitors as heroes.
Our job is to promote teams and team leaders as visionary, as taking on challenges against the odds.
4. Raise the stakes.
It causes people to fund teams not for the return on investment but for the media value, the ego value. And a large amount of money says the challenge is worth doing.
5. Pick the right battle.
Our mission is to bring about radical breakthroughs that benefit humanity. Prizes make sense where things are stuck because of mindset or unions or the military-industrial complex.
The Big Idea: Compete!
From cars to math, the big shots in science and tech are using cash prizes to spark creativity.
Darpa Grand Challenge
Defense Department
Goal: An autonomous vehicle that can cross 130 miles of desert
Prize: $2 million (awarded to the Stanford team in 2005)
Centennial Challenges
NASA
Goal: Better space technologies, from vehicles to astronaut gloves
Prize: About $250,000 each
Grand Challenges in Global Health
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others
Goal: New research in a dozen fields of medicine
Prize: 43 grants, $436.6 million total
Millennium Prize Problems
Clay Mathematics Institute
Goal: Solutions to seven math problems – like the Navier-Stokes fluid dynamics equations and the Reimann hypothesis about prime numbers
Prize: $1 million for each
Methuselah Mouse Prize
Methuselah Foundation
Goal: Technologies to slow or reverse the aging process
Prize: $3 million total
America’s Space Prize
Robert Bigelow
Goal: A five-person reusable rocket that can orbit the earth and dock with a space station
Prize: $50 million
Peter Diamandis
credit Joe Pugliese
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