Need

Diversey (a Solenis Company), the Seeker for this Innocentive Challenge, is seeking novel technologies capable of providing objective, rapid, and actionable verification of cleanliness in professional cleaning environments.

Current methods for cleanliness verification typically rely on visual inspection, ATP testing, and/or microbiological sampling and culturing. While these methods have value, they often provide incomplete coverage, require significant time, lack species-level specificity, or fail to demonstrate cleanliness across larger areas.

We are seeking breakthrough approaches that can rapidly establish either:

• Cleanliness of large areas such as an entire room, or
• Species/strain-specific verification of microbes present through a surface sampling approach

Rapid identification means under thirty minutes. An ideal solution would combine both aspects and be able to assess the cleanliness of a large area, identifying microbes present with species/strain specificity.

We are not seeking conventional approaches already widely adopted by industry, such as ATP swab testing. We are interested in genuinely novel concepts, technologies, sensing modalities, biological approaches, analytical methodologies, or combinations thereof. Submissions are therefore expected to be early Technology Readiness Level (TRL).

Submissions of established emerging techniques that are already receiving significant commercial attention, such as hyperspectral imaging for larger areas or “lab-on-a-chip PCR testing” for species-specific identification are only of interest at TRL 6 of higher.

Prize/IP

Your IP Rights are protected in this Prize Challenge; Diversey must pay you an award to obtain them.

The best solution has the opportunity to win the award of $10,000 for meeting all solution requirements. The Challenge requires a written proposal to be submitted, and Awards will be contingent upon the theoretical evaluation of your proposal by Diversey against the Solution Requirements.

To receive an Award, Solvers are required to grant non-exclusive license rights to the Intellectual Property (IP) in their proposed solution. Solvers will retain all rights to any proposal not Awarded and there is no assignment.

Diversey is willing and very interested to explore a collaboration agreement if IP rights cannot be assigned by a Solver that is an organization already owning the IP rights in their proposed solution, or for a Solver interested in partnering with Diversey on their idea to explore bringing this together to market, rather than receiving a prize award.

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on September 21st, 2026.

Please review the later Participation Guidance section before submitting a proposal.

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Seeker/Eligibility

Solenis is a leader in water and hygiene solutions, partnering with our customers to improve the environment and make the world safer. As a trusted partner, we deliver value by solving sustainability and operational challenges with the right people, the right experience and the right technology. Our solutions help conserve natural resources and promote cleaner and safer environments. For more than 100 years, customers have trusted us to deliver value-driven, tailor-made solutions, advanced insights, measurable results and service that is second to none. We hope that you will join us on this journey by taking part in this Innocentive Challenge.

Employees of Solenis, their family members, and company affiliates are ineligible to receive an award for this Challenge.

Challenge

Background

Across food service, hospitality, healthcare, education, facility management, and industrial operations, cleaning is a critical activity that directly impacts hygiene, safety, operational performance, and customer confidence.

Despite significant advances in cleaning chemistry, equipment, robotics, and digital monitoring, there remains no universally accepted method to rapidly verify cleanliness across large areas or identifying specific contaminants when present.

Today's approaches typically involve trade-offs:

• Visual inspection can cover large areas but is limited to identifying gross soils and lacks microbial specificity
• ATP testing provides fast results but does not identify organisms
• Microbiological culturing provides organism information but can require days
• Molecular methods often provide higher specificity but can be expensive, localized, or slow
• Advanced imaging approaches may detect anomalies but often cannot identify microbial species

As a result, organizations frequently have incomplete information regarding the cleanliness status of facilities and surfaces. Cleaning is therefore done to a schedule as far as practicable which can result in over-cleaning, under-cleaning or using the wrong cleaning chemistry for the soils and microbes present.

The Challenge

We are seeking innovative technologies capable of transforming cleanliness verification. Solutions may focus on one or both of the following objectives:

Objective 1 - Large Area Assessment

Rapidly assess cleanliness across a large physical space, such as commercial kitchens, food processing facilities, healthcare environments, hotels, educational facilities, office buildings, and manufacturing facilities:

• Assess an entire room or large area in a single pass
• Distinguish clean versus potentially contaminated regions
• Produce actionable outputs, maps, alerts, or contamination visualizations in near real-time
• Operate with minimal specialist training

Objective 2 – Species/Strain-Specific Identification

Provide identification of contaminants from targeted surfaces, such as critical touchpoints and food-contact or hygiene-critical surfaces:

• Detect biological contamination.
• Differentiate microorganisms beyond total bioburden.
• Identify contamination at the species level.
• Preferably identify contamination at the strain level.
• Generate results in less than 30 minutes.

Ideal End State

The most attractive solutions would combine both capabilities in a single operational workflow:

• Rapidly screen a complete area
• Identify specific areas requiring further investigation
• Characterize contamination within these areas at the microbial strain level
• Provide results within 30 minutes

Examples may include, but are not limited to: novel sensing technologies; advanced optical approaches; acoustic or ultrasonic methods; novel biological recognition systems; engineered biosensors; environmental DNA approaches; AI-assisted detection platforms; new sampling methodologies; hybrid hardware/software systems; portable laboratory systems; and autonomous inspection systems.

We are particularly interested in approaches not currently established within professional cleaning, food safety, or infection prevention markets.

Solution Requirements

We are interested in genuinely novel concepts, technologies, sensing modalities, biological approaches, analytical methodologies, or combinations thereof. Submissions are therefore expected to be early TRL 2-4.

Submissions of established emerging techniques that are already receiving significant commercial attention, such as hyperspectral imaging for larger areas or “lab-on-a-chip PCR testing” for species-specific identification are only of interest at TRL 6 of higher.

We are open to any innovative approach, provided the proposed solution meets the following Solution Requirements.

Must have:

• Demonstrates a credible method of verifying cleanliness
• Generates results within 30 minutes
• Suitable for professional cleaning environments
• Can be operated with basic training
• Does not rely on access to a laboratory or prohibitively expensive equipment
• Capable of distinguishing clean versus contaminated conditions
• Clearly explains the underlying scientific principles
• Demonstrates significant differentiation from ATP testing
• Supported by published evidence, technical rationale, prototype data, or a demonstrated scientific foundation

Nice to have

• Whole-room or large-area assessment capability
• Species-level microbial identification
• Strain-level microbial identification
• Portable or field-deployable operation
• Non-destructive operation
• Low consumable costs
• Minimal operator expertise required
• Ability to integrate with existing cleaning workflows
• Digital reporting and audit trail functionality

Out of Scope

• Solutions requiring laboratory processing times exceeding 30 minutes
• ATP swab testing
• Conventional culture-based methods alone
• Standard fluorescence-based cleanliness tests
• Existing commercial hygiene monitoring solutions without meaningful differentiation
• Hyperspectral imaging approaches below TRL 6
• PCR-based approaches below TRL 6

Repeating that we are not seeking conventional approaches already widely adopted by industry, such as ATP swab testing.

Solutions with Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) 2-4 are invited.

This Prize Challenge has the following features:

1. Your IP Rights are protected; Diversey must pay you an award to obtain them.
2. The best solution has the opportunity to win the award of $10,000 for meeting all solution requirements.
3. The Challenge requires a written proposal to be submitted, and Awards will be contingent upon the theoretical evaluation of your proposal by Diversey against the Solution Requirements.
4. To receive an Award, Solvers are required to grant non-exclusive license rights to the Intellectual Property (IP) in their proposed solution.
5. Diversey is willing and very interested to explore a collaboration agreement if IP rights cannot be assigned by a Solver that is an organization already owning the IP rights in their proposed solution, or for a Solver interested in partnering with Diversey on their idea to explore bringing this together to market, rather than receiving a prize award.
6. Solvers will retain all rights to any proposal not Awarded and there is no assignment.
7. Diversey may issue “Honourable Mention” recognitions for notable submissions that are not selected for monetary awards.
8. Diversey may wish to partner with the Solver at the conclusion of the Challenge. Please indicate your interest in partnering (also see 5. above).

Your Submission

Please login and register your interest, to complete the submission form.

The submitted proposals must be written in English and can include:

1. Participation Type – you will first be asked to inform us how you are participating in this challenge, as a Solver (Individual), Solver (Organization), Solver (Organization - already owning its solution IP) or Solver (interested in partnering, with no prize).
2. Solution Level - the TRL of your solution.
3. Partnering - there may be an opportunity to partner at the conclusion of this Challenge. Please indicate if partnering is of interest to you (also see Form Field 10 below).
4. Problem & Opportunity - highlight the innovation in your approach to the Problem, its point of difference, and the specific advantages/benefits this brings (up to 500 words).
5. Solution Overview - detail the features of your solution and how they address the SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS (500 words, there is space to add more in the summary field, and attach supporting data, diagrams, etc.).
6. Solution Feasibility/Scientific Basis – provide supporting information and rationale, including references, precedents, validation studies, prototype data, or technical rationale (up to 500 words).
7. Performance Expectations - describe detection capability, speed, sensitivity, specificity, area coverage, species-identification capability, and limitations (up to 500 words)
8. Experience - Expertise, use cases and skills you or your organization have in relation to your proposed solution (up to 500 words).
9. Solution Risks - any risks you see with your solution and how you would plan for this (up to 500 words).
10. Development timeline, and capability - at a high-level, describe what is required to deliver the solution including capabilities and key deliverables. In particular, highlighting the role you would seek to play in the development process if partnering with Diversey (up to 500 words).
11. Online References - provide links to any publications, articles or press releases of relevance (up to 500 words).

Participation Guidance

1. Submission Close Date: Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on September 21st, 2026.
2. Late submissions: Late submissions will not be considered.
3. Multiple submissions, 3 Maximum: In case of multiple submissions by the same Solver, only 3 submissions – the final 3 submitted – will be considered. Any other submissions will be deleted prior to evaluation.
4. Submission form and attachments: Your submission will be evaluated by the evaluation team first reviewing the information and content you have submitted at the submission form, with attachments used as additional context to your form submission. Submissions relying solely on attachments will receive less attention from the evaluation team.
5. Evaluation notification steps: After the Challenge submission close date, Diversey will review and select the winning ideas/solutions according to the timeline in the Challenge header. Everyone who submits a proposal will be notified about the status of their submissions.
6. Use of AI: Please note that any submissions produced solely with generative AI are not of interest.
7. Learn more: Find out more about participation in Innocentive Challenges.