Nurturing Innovation in Agriculture: The Homegrown Innovation Challenge
18 October 2023
food sustainability Homegrown Innovation ChallengeThe Homegrown Innovation Challenge is the biggest single challenge prize we’ve ever worked on.
The C$33m (£19m) programme, which we co-designed with the Weston Family Foundation, aims to accelerate technology development in agriculture, creating innovative solutions that can extend the growing season of crops.
The challenge came about as a result of disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which heightened the need for extending the growing season in Canada. The chosen focus of the challenge was on berries, a category of crop notoriously difficult to cultivate outside its natural season, even with existing greenhouse systems.
Navigating Complexities in Eligibility
As with any ambitious challenge, there were unique constraints and complexities requiring a bespoke approach to design and delivery. It ventured into a highly technical domain with lofty, long-term ambitions that pushed the boundaries of what could be achieved within the stipulated timeframe.
A notable constraint was the Weston Family Foundation’s mandate under Canadian charity law, which allowed them to award funds only to “qualified donees,” a category that included universities, charities, government bodies, and First Nations communities but excluded private companies. This necessitated a creative approach to the prize’s design, featuring generous grants at multiple stages, with the final prize acting as an incentive rather than the primary funding mechanism. The eligibility rules were clear; private companies couldn’t be the lead applicants receiving funds, but teams were encouraged to include private companies as partners in their proposals. This approach successfully enabled the involvement of private sector expertise while adhering to regulatory constraints.
Unlocking Investment and Partnerships
In an early sign of success, one team raised $4 million based on their $1million semi-finalist grant, a testament to the catalytic effect of challenge prizes on innovation and investment. However, as with all successful challenges, non-financial support played an equally important role in its success. This included the initial outreach to get the word out about the opportunity, direct outreach convincing innovators to apply, networking applicants via match-making events, a market-readiness mentorship program, assistance in seeking additional funding opportunities, and the enormous communications effort that elevated the challenge themes into public discourse.
Driving diverse solutions
The Homegrown Innovation Challenge showcased the value of challenges for which the desired outcome is specified, but how the applicants meet that outcome is down to them. While initial assumptions pointed toward energy-related solutions, the semi-finalist cohort revealed a different reality. Most teams innovated various components of the growing system, rather than focusing solely on energy solutions. This diversity of approaches underscores the value that challenges deliver in fostering innovative solutions from a wide range of technical perspectives.
