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: Harnessing the Power of Big Data

March 26, 2013

TAGS: Best Practice, Corporation, Innovation, Open Innovation

Webinar featuring thought-leader Phil Simon focused on how leading organizations are using crowdsourcing, open innovation, and prize competition mechanisms to harness the power of Big Data. During this event, Mr. Simon provides tips and practical advice for getting started without having to make massive capital investments, and with tangible returns in weeks or months, not years.

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.

Webinar Replay: Avoiding the Open Innovation Cliff

January 30, 2013

TAGS: Best Practice, Corporation, Making the Business Case, Open Innovation

Industry thought-leader Reuben Oder, formerly P&G's Connect+Develop Community of Experts Leader, shares his expertise to help viewers drive adoption of their Open Innovation (OI) programs, sustain momentum over the long-term, and accelerate their pace of innovation.

Webinar Replay: Open Innovation Best Practices Featuring Syngenta

December 4, 2012

TAGS: Best Practice, Corporation, Open Innovation

This webinar, featuring keynote speaker Dr. Joseph Byrum of Syngenta and moderated by InnoCentive's Dwayne Spradlin, focused on disseminating best practices for developing and executing an open innovation (OI) strategy within large global enterprises.

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: Forrester Research on Sustaining Your Innovation Investments

September 18, 2012

TAGS: Best Practice, Open Innovation, ROI

This webinar presented by analyst Chris Andrews of Forrester focuses on best practices for justifying and sustaining your innovation investments, including ROI and value measurement. The presentation shares common pain points in making the case for innovation programs, including open innovation initiatives, and provides helpful tips for communicating the value of your 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.

Case Study: Global Security Challenge

June 20, 2012

TAGS: Corporation, Government, Open Innovation

Learn how the Global Security Challenge (GSC) finds the next generation of security solutions. Running annually from 2006 to 2011, the GSC is one of InnoCentive’s flagship Grand Challenges, and since 2006, $2.9 million has been awarded as a result of this long-standing and successful program.

Case Study: Energy Storage Challenge

June 20, 2012

TAGS: Corporation, Government, Open Innovation

Learn how the Energy Storage Challenge finds great ideas to store and transport energy. Launched in 2010 to find the best ideas from around the world for new energy storage and transporation systems, 121 solutions were received, 7 finalists were recognized, and $250,000 in Challenge awards were granted.

White Paper: Challenges, Prize Programs, and the Opportunity for Government

May 2, 2012

TAGS: Government, Making the Business Case

How can the public sector and government get the best from running challenges and prize competitions? As we witness the resurgence of governments' use of these innovative tools, this white paper explores both the pitfalls and opportunities associated with running challenge programs in government.

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.

Webinar Replay: Open Innovation & Collaboration Webinar - NASA Presents its Real Life Implementation and Lessons Learned

March 29, 2012

TAGS: Best Practice, Government, Innovation, Open Innovation, ROI

This webinar focuses on NASA’s experience with collaborative innovation and partnership building activities through non-traditional methodologies. Specifically discussed are the implementation strategies utilized by the agency, the obstacles encountered, and the successful outcomes and lessons learned.

White Paper: The 2012 State of Global Open Innovation

March 22, 2012

TAGS: Best Practice, Making the Business Case, Open Innovation, ROI

Based on a global survey of 229 open innovation (OI) decision makers conducted by Forrester Research and sponsored by InnoCentive, this white paper provides an in-depth look into the OI landscape by diving into the research findings, providing detailed analysis, and offering recommended courses of action.

Webinar Replay: Forrester Research on The 2012 State of Global Open Innovation

February 28, 2012

TAGS: Best Practice, Making the Business Case, Open Innovation, ROI

In late 2011, Forrester Research conducted a global survey of 229 innovation practitioners across a variety of industries. The research was augmented with more than a dozen in-depth interviews with senior executive leaders in Global 2,000 firms. This webinar, sponsored by InnoCentive and featuring Forrester analyst Chris Andrews, highlights results from the study.

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.

Case Study: Prize4Life

January 26, 2012

TAGS: Best Practice, Not for Profit, Social Innovation

Read about the $1 million Grand Challenge to find a biomarker for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The solution is expected to cut the cost of a Phase II clinical trial from $10 million to $5 million.

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.

Case Study: EnterpriseWorks

December 8, 2011

TAGS: Best Practice, Open Innovation, Social Innovation

Read about how EnterpriseWorks tapped the InnoCentive Solver Network to solve the "unsolvable" problem of providing fresh drinking water to people in developing areas. The solution provided fresh water and new economic opportunities for millions of people.

Case Study: Precyse Technologies, Inc.

December 8, 2011

TAGS: Best Practice, Open Innovation

Precyse Technologies, Inc. turned to InnoCentive to find a way to remotely wake up a wireless device without using a battery – at a dramatically longer range than any market available technology would allow. They found a solution that exceeded their needs - and saved them over $1 Million in R&D costs.

Webinar Replay: Architecting a Prize-based Grand Challenge Program

June 21, 2011

TAGS: Best Practice, Making the Business Case

InnoCentive's Gabriel Eichler and Dr. Melanie Leitner, Chief Scientific Officer of Prize4Life, discuss Grand Challenges, which are important problems whose solutions have high value and far-reaching benefits to society and humanity.

Webinar Replay: The Open Innovation Marketplace: Creating Value In The Challenge Driven Enterprise

May 12, 2011

TAGS: Best Practice, Making the Business Case, Open Innovation

In their new book, co-authors Alph Bingham and Dwayne Spradlin introduce groundbreaking strategies and models for leveraging the world’s best innovation sources to drive far more value from new products, services, and business models.

White Paper: Challenging the Public To Do Good

April 15, 2011

TAGS: Best Practice, Innovation, Making the Business Case, Not for Profit

This white paper explores how InnoCentive's Challenge Driven Innovation methodology and tools can make a tremendous impact on nonprofit organizations' ability to solve Challenges that matter most for the public good, assist in fundraising efforts, optimize scarce resources, and harness the same proven innovation methods that have been available to commercial organizations for years. Several case studies are highlighted in the report.

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.

Case Study: NASA's 7-Challenge Experience with InnoCentive

October 25, 2010

TAGS: Best Practice, Government, Open Innovation

Comprehensive report detailing NASA’s experience with InnoCentive. Includes details about the 7 public Challenges NASA executed with InnoCentive, Solver testimonials, and lessons learned.

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.

Webinar Replay: Improving the Management and Measurement of Innovation

April 28, 2010

TAGS: Best Practice, Innovation, Making the Business Case

Chris Andrews of research analyst firm Forrester discusses not only why innovation is essential to the health of your organization, but also how to measure your innovation efforts based on your objectives, why the management and measurement of innovation is still so elusive, and what innovation means today.

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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