Open Innovation & Crowdsourcing Research Resources

A wide collection of white papers, webinar replays, case studies, Challenge solution stories, and more are provided on this page. Content is sorted by publishing date.  

Webinar Replay: Challenging the World to Take Up Your Cause

June 14, 2013
TAGS: Best Practice, Crowdsourcing, Not for Profit, Open Innovation

This webinar, featuring Kiko Suarez, Vice President of Communications and Innovation at Lumina Foundation (an InnoCentive client), and InnoCentive Director Siobhán Gibney Gomis, demonstrates how a well-designed Challenge can result in game-changing impact for foundations/nonprofits and their missions.

Article: Alliance Magazine Article on The Power of the Crowd

March 1, 2013
TAGS: Best Practice, Crowdsourcing, Not for Profit

An insighful byline written by InnoCentive's own Simon Schneider about the power of the crowd. Featured in the March 2013 issue of Alliance Magazine.

Article: HBR Article on Problem Solving & Innovation

September 28, 2012
TAGS: Best Practice, Crowdsourcing, Innovation, Making the Business Case, Open Innovation

In September 2012, Harvard Business Review published a thought-provoking article by InnoCentive's very own Dwayne Spradlin. In this article, Dwayne makes the argument that most firms aren't solving the right problems, or even asking the right questions, which undermines their innovation efforts.

Webinar Replay: Air Force Research Labs on Best Practices for Prize Competitions

July 25, 2012
TAGS: Best Practice, Crowdsourcing, Government, Open Innovation

Learn how Wright Brothers Institute (WBI) IDEA Lab used collaborative innovation to create successful prize-based Challenges for the Air Force Research Labs (AFRL). WBI partners with the AFRL – a $4B technology powerhouse – to energize world-class R&D collaborations and technology innovation. Featured speaker Bob Lee will discuss the benefits and true effectiveness of successful problem definition and deconstruction in prize design – highlighting the Air Force Research Labs’ successful FAST Rope Challenge.

Gartner Report: InnoCentive Positions Itself as a Challenge Marketplace

June 27, 2012
TAGS: Best Practice, Crowdsourcing, Making the Business Case, Open Innovation

Case study of InnoCentive conducted by IT research firm Gartner. InnoCentive's general manager of EMEA, Simon Schneider, is interviewed in the report.

Video: What is InnoCentive?

April 10, 2012
TAGS: Corporation, Crowdsourcing, Open Innovation

Three minute overview of InnoCentive and the power of Challenges.

White Paper: Adding Value to Stage-Gate Through the Use of Challenges

April 2, 2012
TAGS: Best Practice, Crowdsourcing, InnoCentive Book, Open Innovation

This white paper explores the use of prize-based Challenges to accelerate innovation outcomes and improve business performance through integration to existing enterprise business processes, and specifically, the ubiquitous Stage-Gate process.

White Paper: Harnessing the Global Talent Pool to Accelerate Innovation

February 15, 2012
TAGS: Best Practice, Crowdsourcing, Innovation, Open Innovation

Authored by industry thought leader Braden Kelley and following on the heels of a recent webinar on the same topic, this white paper explores the intersection of talent management and open innovation strategies. The paper dives into why having an external talent strategy is becoming increasingly important and how it can help your company accelerate innovation, shows how leading organizations manage their open innovation and crowdsourcing efforts (including case study examples of companies like P&G), and provides proven strategies and steps to take for attracting talent to your organization's innovation efforts.

Webinar Replay: Harnessing The Global Talent Pool to Accelerate Innovation

December 13, 2011
TAGS: Best Practice, Crowdsourcing, Open Innovation

Braden Kelley, co-founder of Innovation Excellence, a global online innovation community and author of "Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire," explores how organizations can utilize open innovation and crowdsourcing resources as an essential talent management strategy to drive their business.

White Paper: Out-Innovating the Competition Through Challenge Driven Innovation

March 15, 2011
TAGS: Best Practice, Crowdsourcing, Making the Business Case, Open Innovation

Our research with clients reveals that most organizations aren't starved for ideas. Rather, they struggle to implement a systematic method and process for defining and solving their key problems and challenges. This white paper answers the question: what methods are currently available to help organizations accelerate innovation by expanding their current capabilities to solve key challenges? The answer is a proven innovation management framework called Challenge Driven Innovation, which accelerates traditional innovation outcomes by leveraging open innovation principles and the power of crowdsourcing.

Challenge Solution: Prize4Life ALS Biomarker Discovered

February 7, 2011
TAGS: Crowdsourcing, Not for Profit, Open Innovation

In 2006, Prize4Life partnered with InnoCentive to launch the $1 million ALS Biomarker Prize with the goal of accelerating the development of a biomarker — an inexpensive and easy-to-use tool that can accurately measure the progression of ALS in patients. An effective biomarker will make clinical trials of ALS drugs cheaper, quicker, and more efficient. By overcoming a fundamental obstacle in drug development for ALS, the discovery of a biomarker clears the way forward for pharmaceutical and biotech companies to develop treatments for ALS. The awarding of the $1 million ALS Biomarker Prize in 2011 to Dr. Seward Rutkove for his identification of a biomarker marks a significant step forward in ALS research.

Case Study: Roche Experience with Open Innovation

June 1, 2009
TAGS: Best Practice, Corporation, Crowdsourcing, Making the Business Case, Open Innovation

See how Roche Diagnostics took an experimental approach to look at smarter ways of working that would help them utilize their employee’s knowledgebase more effectively. They challenged two different networks of scientists to tackle the same problem – one, an internal R&D community (ie employees of Roche Diagnostics), and the other, an external network of scientists, the global network of InnoCentive Solvers.

Case Study: The Total Economic Impact™ of InnoCentive Challenges

May 1, 2009
TAGS: Best Practice, Corporation, Crowdsourcing, Innovation, Making the Business Case, Open Innovation, ROI

See how SCA, a large, international consumer products organization, achieved a return on investment (ROI) of 74%, with a payback period of less than three months as a result of using InnoCentive Challenges for open innovation in a major R&D division of the organization.

Challenge Solution: TB Alliance Works to Eradicate One of the World’s Deadliest Diseases

December 4, 2008
TAGS: Crowdsourcing, Social Innovation

In late 2007, the TB Alliance, a not-for-profit, product development partnership (PDP) dedicated to accelerating the discovery and development of new and improved drugs to treat tuberculosis, posted a Challenge on the InnoCentive web site. The Challenge was seeking a theoretical solution to simplify the manufacturing process of a current drug compound. This new methodology would improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of producing the compound, making it more widely available and more effective against the spread of TB, which is responsible for one death every 20 seconds. The solution was provided by two Solvers, one of whom was a scientist with a very personal stake in finding a cure for TB. His contribution to developing a cost effective process will benefit millions suffering from TB especially from developing and underdeveloped countries.

Case Study: Harvard Business School Study of InnoCentive

June 10, 2008
TAGS: Best Practice, Corporation, Crowdsourcing, Government, Innovation, Making the Business Case, Not for Profit, Open Innovation, ROI

This validating case study provides details about safeguarding intellectual property, talks about the benefits to commercial enterprises, and lists specific examples of Ideation Challenges posted on InnoCentive.com.

Challenge Solution: Solver Brings Light to African Villages

March 8, 2008
TAGS: Crowdsourcing, Social Innovation

In late 2007, SunNight Solar, an organization that is dedicated to shining a light on problems plaguing the developing world including poverty, women’s safety, health, and literacy, sought the help of InnoCentive’s Solver community to create a dual-purpose solar light to serve as both a lamp and a flashlight to be used in African villages and other areas of the world without electricity. This invention provides sufficient light for security at night, enabling children to study and allowing family members to safely walk to outhouses at night. An electrical engineer from New Zealand solved the Challenge and was awarded $20,000 in March 2008.

Challenge Solution: Oil Industry Outsider Solves Oil Spill Recovery Challenge

November 7, 2007
TAGS: Best Practice, Corporation, Crowdsourcing, Government, InnoCentive Book, Innovation, Making the Business Case, Not for Profit, Open Innovation, Social Innovation

In the summer of 2007, the Oil Spill Recovery Institute (OSRI) posted 3 Challenges on the InnoCentive website, all dealing with oil spill recovery issues from the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. The first of these Challenges was solved in November 2007 by an oil industry outsider who used his expertise in the concrete industry to come up with the winning solution. John Davis, an InnoCentive Solver from the Central United States, was awarded $20,000 for his creative solution.

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