Encouraging multiple approaches
That’s alright though; the lesson we learn from challenge prizes is that one size does not fit all.
We know that challenge prizes work precisely because they encourage multiple approaches and allow for different solutions to solve the same problem. We tend to find that having multiple solutions (whether or not they win) go on to contribute to solving their problem each in their own way in the long term.
The same can be true for today’s innovation strategy.
The ambitious funding increase, the mission-based focus and the desire to translate Britain’s R&D prowess into business success builds a landscape in which new and multiple approaches to innovation can be harnessed in exciting and high-impact ways.
In the last year, The UK Government has indicated that challenge prizes can be a key contributor to the new innovation strategy, recognising their potential to promote business growth and productivity throughout the UK.
As the new strategy reflects, up until the mid-20th Century, the UK had a long and notable record of using challenge prizes to incentivise great technological advancements: from the 1714 Longitude Prize – the world’s first challenge prize – to aid maritime navigation, to the global aviation prizes of the 1910s, 20s and 30s.
Due to the work of Challenge Works over the last decade, the knowledge and capacity to use challenge prizes to solve the big problems we face in the 21st Century has been re-established in the UK.