Explore our challenge prizes
Want to help solve some of society’s biggest problems? You’re in the right place
This could be your opportunity to help solve some of the world’s biggest problems.
Challenge Works supports smart ideas and ingenious solutions, wherever they come from. We believe inventors can come from any background or sector, so we work to break down barriers, support long-term success and nurture innovation talent every step of the way.
We have worked with thousands of innovator teams and dozens of funders to find solutions to problems, draw attention to societal issues, and bring about real change.
Read on to find out more about our current and past portfolio of challenge prizes.
Metascience Novelty Indicators Challenge
The Metascience Novelty Indicators Challenge is a global initiative to develop and validate scalable indicators that can identify novelty in research.
Smart Data Challenge Prize
The Smart Data Challenge Prize is a £600,000 challenge prize funded by the Department for Business & Trade, designed to identify and develop Smart Data use cases across the economy.
Manchester Prize Round 2
The second Manchester Prize will be awarded to the most innovative and impactful AI solution enabling the UK to accelerate progress towards a net zero energy system.
Aqualunar Challenge
The Aqualunar Challenge will reward UK-led water purification innovations that will benefit both Earth and Space. We need your help to pioneer technology and innovation that will purify water on the moon.
Manchester Prize Round 1
The first Manchester Prize was awarded to Polaron, an artificial intelligence technology that dramatically accelerates the development of new advanced materials from decades to just a day.
Smart Data Discovery Challenge
The Smart Data Discovery Challenge called on individuals, innovators, entrepreneurs, academia and civil society to join us in identifying innovative ways in which Smart Data could make a difference for consumers, small businesses and wider society.
Flying High Urban Drones Prize
Ghana Science and Tech Explorer Challenge Prize
GSTEP is inspiring the next generation of inventors and entrepreneurs in Ghana by encouraging practical learning and the development of STEM and ICT skills through a series of challenge prizes.
Horizon Prize for the Cleanest Engine of the Future
Reducing emissions in real driving conditions to the lowest possible level
Horizon prize for the Cleanest Engine Retrofit
Finding retrofit solution for existing engines and powertrains that best addressed the issue of greatly reducing emissions of NOx, particles, hydrocarbons in real driving conditions.
Tactile Display Horizon Prize
The Tactile Display Horizon Prize rewarded the individual or team who came up with an affordable, portable, internet-enabled device with a full-page tactile display to be used by visually impaired and blind people.
European Innovation Council Horizon Prize on Blockchain for Social Good
The Horizon Blockchains for Social Good Prize rewarded the development of scalable, efficient and effective decentralised solutions to sustainability challenges which exploit the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) used in blockchains.
Challenge prizes
Discover how challenge prizes work, why they attract the right innovators and how they can help solve urgent problems where solutions are lacking.