Our challenge prize method

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A rigorous system

Rigorous, tested and bespoke to our partners’ goals, our method is designed to ensure that our challenge prizes unlock systemic changes which can make the world a better place.

It doesn’t happen by accident. We use a thorough, tested and re-tested method of refinement, design and delivery to achieve and surpass goals.

The work we do is bespoke by nature, whilst following our carefully designed processes, and the results are entirely unique to each project. This way of working allows us to attract and incentivise entrepreneurs and creative thinkers from all walks of life.

Find out more about our method below, and if you have any questions, get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.

Our Practice Guide

Our method is designed to deliver results.

From incredibly in-depth research and goal-refinement to crafting a prize that will attract the right talent.

We make it our business to get our partners’ challenge prizes in front of the very best people for the job.

Take a look at our Practice Guide

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Our Method in action

Discover and define

First, we research.

We work to understand every inch of the field in question, defining the focus and problems to explore.

This is the phase where we find areas in which entrepreneurs, end users and independent experts agree that innovation would help.

Design

Then we work with our partners to carefully construct a prize.

This is done in iterations, using prototypes and testing different approaches to get expert feedback.

At the end of this phase we’ll have a rock-solid prize offering to attract the right talent.

Deliver

Finally, we put designs into practice.

This phase will look different depending on the challenge prize.

Typically this will include launch preparation, developing comms, identifying key innovators and judging criteria, setting support levels and launching events.

Blueprints for success

Every prize is bespoke: designed around the innovators it targets, and around the problem it aims to solve. But we’ve run enough prizes to develop some clear design principles. These six challenge prize blueprints are a starting point for our design work. They illustrate the broad principles of how we tailor different prizes to different objectives.

  • These prizes create genuinely transformative solutions to a difficult problem.

    What makes a Breakthrough prize?

    • Ambitious and tightly-defined goals
    • Technological solutions
    • Large prize pots
    • A longer timeframe

    How do we design a Breakthrough prize?

    • We focus on developing a technological fix to a known barrier
    • We look to develop innovations that don’t yet exist, or are in relatively early stages but facing a barrier to further development
    • We structure criteria around the key attributes the solution must have, in order to solve the problem

    See a Breakthrough prize in action

    The Longitude Prize looks to invent an affordable, accurate, fast and easy-to-use test for bacterial infections allowing health professionals worldwide to administear the right antibiotics at the right time.

    Learn more about the Longitude Prize

  • Designed to scale truly transformative innovations, to achieve a wider societal impact.

    What makes a Scaling prize?

    • Rewarding impact at scale, aiming to kickstart a clear potential market
    • Creating scaling incentives where the market has failed to do so
    • Quantifiable targets that reward those who reach them
    • Typically targeting a small pool of thinkers with relevant skills and expertise

    How do we design a Scaling prize?

    • We focus on innovations that have been proven at a small scale and are known to have potentially wide impact at larger scale
    • We structure and incentivise, to ensure every solution can grow
    • We design around market uptake and the impact the innovation needs to have
    • We ensure the prize promotes scaling that is sustainable and impactful

    See a Scaling prize in action

    The Afri-Plastics Challenge: Accelerating Growth challenge prize was designed to reduce marine plastics in Sub-Saharan African countries by developing innovative solutions to plastic mismanagement in a way that promotes gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.

    Learn more about the Afri-Plastics Challenge: Accelerating Growth

  • These prizes seek to build capacity for early-stage problem-solvers, supporting their entry into the market

    What makes a Startup challenge?

    • Broad goals with a focus on bringing new people and new ideas into the field
    • Emphasis on attracting budding problem-solvers and helping them to do more
    • Larger numbers of entrants and prize participants through multiple stages with increasing levels of support

    How do we design a Startup challenge?

    We set a challenge goal to be broad so a wide pool of problem-solvers and innovations are eligible

    • We establish a low bar to entry by accepting early stage ideas and simplifying the entry process
    • We use seed grants and other support to help foster talent
    • We ensure judging criteria is broad, to allow fair scoring of different ideas
    • We weight resources through multiple stages to ensure resources are used most efficiently
    • We balance smaller prize amounts against significant investment in capacity development support and grant funding

    See a Startup prize in action

    The Inventor Prize encouraged small, at-home inventors to overcome barriers to both funding and non-financial support.

    Learn more about the Inventor Prize

  • Designed to develop better solutions by bringing teams of problem-solvers and communities together.

    What makes a Community-centred challenge?

    • Response to communities being neglected by existing solutions
    • Typically features multiple stages with emphasis placed on facilitating meaningful collaboration between problem-solvers and the communities affected by the issue
    • Innovations can be technology, product or service based

    How do we design a Community-centred challenge?

    • We set criteria to ensure all innovations are well suited to the community they are designed for
    • We build in extensive interactions between problem-solving teams and end users
    • We focus on relatively early-stage innovations that need to be tested and developed
    • We invest a lot in collaboration, mentoring and events to foster crucial connection between problem-solvers and communities

    See a Community-centred challenge in action

    The Data Driven Farming Prize focused on creating tools to source, analyse and translate data into information that Nepalese farmers could use to improve productivity.

    Learn more about the Data Driven Farming Prize

  • These prizes shine a light on a neglected issue or problem

    What makes a Spotlight prize?

    • Designed to highlight a broader problem and attract a wider range of innovation talent
    • Focus on problems that suffer from a lack of awareness or with existing solutions that lack nuanced understanding of the end user’s needs
    • Typically features significant investment in PR and communications

    How do we design a Spotlight prize?

    • We define an ambitious goal, aiming to develop a broad range of innovations focused on end users’ needs
    • We consider how best to ensure that teams build a clear understanding of their end users and meaningfully involve them
    • We use the excitement of the prize to build greater awareness of the issue, through strategic PR activities

    See a Spotlight prize in action

    The Mobility Unlimited Challenge sought to radically improve the mobility and independence of people with lower-limb paralysis through smarter assistive technology.

    Learn more about the Mobility Unlimited Challenge

  • These challenges stimulate innovation, supporting regulatory objectives and informing future policies

    What makes a Testbed challenge?

    • An aim to inform policy and regulation. For example, to identify barriers to innovation or the need for new rules
    • For use by governments and regulators with an interest in safely bringing new innovations and technologies to the market
    • May include providing safe testing environments – physical or virtual – in which teams can experiment in a controlled fashion
    • Open to a range of teams and thinkers, often with a focus on new entrants and disruptors

    How do we design a Testbed challenge?

    • We clearly define potential challenge learnings that could inform policy, and build them into the challenge process
    • We consider how best to structure the challenge to make it attractive to a wide range of problem-solvers, using a mix of financial and other support incentives
    • We assess the need for a physical or virtual testing environment, giving teams and policymakers the freedom to experiment, iterate and learn

    See a Testbed challenge in action

    The Legal Access Challenge set out to develop ambitious direct-to-user products, services and platforms in order to make legal services more accessible and affordable for individuals, families and small businesses.

    Learn more about the Legal Access Challenge

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