Diverse Perspectives and Effective Problem Solving

Our network, methodology, platform, and expert support provide everything you need for crowdsourcing innovation, whether you want to tap smart minds outside or inside your organization.

Diverse Perspectives and Effective Problem Solving

Our network, methodology, platform, and expert support provide everything you need for crowdsourcing innovation, whether you want to tap smart minds outside or inside your organization.

Premium Challenges

Tap our diverse global network of nearly 500,000 creative and smart minds.

Learn More >

Wazoku

Engage and promote collaboration amongst your employees, customers, partners, and suppliers.

Learn More >

Premium Challenges

Tap our diverse global network of nearly 500,000 creative and smart minds.

Learn More >

Wazoku

Engage and promote collaboration amongst your employees, customers, partners, and suppliers.

Learn More >

Premium Challenges

Formulate your pressing problem or need as a Challenge and post to our diverse global network of nearly 500,000 creative and smart minds to tackle. Gain detailed proposals and even working prototypes within weeks.

Premium Challenges

Formulate your pressing problem or need as a Challenge and post to our diverse global network of nearly 500,000 creative and smart minds to tackle. Gain detailed proposals and even working prototypes within weeks.

Case Studies

NIH: Follow that Cell Challenge

Challenge:

The ability to predict the behaviour and function of a single cell over time could reveal valuable information such as how cells transition from healthy to diseased and their response to treatment. NIH ran a $500,000, two-stage Challenge looking for tools and methods that could that could deliver this.

Result:

Two biological engineering researchers were awarded. The first solution involved a nano-pipette with a tip so fine that it can non-invasively sample tiny amounts of material from inside a cell. The second solution involved engineering cells to secrete molecules of interest so analysis can occur without even going inside the cell.

“The winning solutions can have an immediate impact in research labs and will very likely lead to further innovations by these groups and others.”

Joshua Gordon, M.D., Ph.D, NIMH Director

View More Case Studies >

View Case Study >
Thomson Reuters: Exposing Data Relationships

Challenge:

Thomson Reuters wanted to improve their Web of Knowledge™ tool through customer-driven product insights. InnoCentive allowed them to first capture the crowd's creative new use cases for the tool and then receive an app that made the selected use case a reality.

Result:

The winning solution was data visualisation app, in the form of elegant and well-documented Java code from a Solver in Hungary. The solution was perfectly suited to specification and could be implemented quickly without a heavy demand on in-house resources.

“By engaging with expert technologists in the scholarly community, we are able to expand the way users interact with the data in the Web of Knowledge.”

Gordon Macomber, Managing Director, Thomson Reuters Scholarly and Scientific Research

View Case Study >

View More Case Studies >
NASA: Strain Measurement of Kevlar Webbing

Challenge:

Kevlar and Vectran could be used for inflatable structures that provide long-term human habitation in space. As part of their testing, NASA required new methods of measuring the strain on these materials at elevated temperatures, something current methods did not consistently allow for.

Result:

Three Solvers ended up being awarded, with one having no formal background in material science, finding his winning insight instead from his time at medical college. Ultimately NASA were able to end a 3-year roadblock and find solutions in places they never would have looked normally.

“This Challenge allowed the team to continue on with other priorities; they do not have time to stop.”

Tom Jones, Deputy Project Manager, Research Lunar Surface Systems

View Case Study >

View More Case Studies >
General Fusion: Method for Sealing Anvil under Repetitive Impacts Against Molten Metal

Challenge:

General Fusion were seeking methods to seal a metal cylinder and the surface of the cylindrical hole into which it fitted such that molten lead on one end of the cylinder was isolated from a vacuum on the opposite end, without being compromised by the repetitive impacts and high temperatures of the cylinder.

Result:

Awarded $20,000 to MIT-trained mechanical engineer and inventor listed on 35 patents. General Fusion have since contracted the Solver to integrate his design into their specific setup.

"We wanted to experiment with crowdsourcing to see what kind of ideas we could get by going outside our organization”

Brendan Cassidy, Open Innovation Manager at General Fusion

View Case Study >

View More Case Studies >

How it Works

1	Typically we begin with a workshop, where we provide Challenge Driven Innovation^TM (CDI) training and help you identify and develop appropriate problems and needs.

2	Our PhD-educated Challenge Experts work with you to decompose and formulate the problems or needs as ‘Challenges’.

3	Challenges are posted, anonymously if desired, to our network of creative and smart minds we call ‘Solvers’, who submit their solutions.

4	You evaluate the proposed solutions and select those to award. You only have to award solutions that fully meet your needs, except with Ideation Challenges where awards are guaranteed. All of this is done via our secure online platform.

5	InnoCentive administers all award payments and IP transfers or licensing. You receive the contact details of all awarded Solvers, allowing you to directly engage with winning Solvers as needed in the future, perhaps as a consultant or employee.

Download PDF Brochure >

How it Works

1	Typically we begin with a workshop, where we provide Challenge Driven Innovation^TM (CDI) training and help you identify and develop appropriate problems and needs.

2	Our PhD-educated Challenge Experts work with you to decompose and formulate the problems or needs as ‘Challenges’.

3	Challenges are posted, anonymously if desired, to our network of creative and smart minds we call ‘Solvers’, who submit their solutions.

4	You evaluate the proposed solutions and select those to award. You only have to award solutions that fully meet your needs, except with Ideation Challenges where awards are guaranteed. All of this is done via our secure online platform.

5	InnoCentive administers all award payments and IP transfers or licensing. You receive the contact details of all awarded Solvers, allowing you to directly engage with winning Solvers as needed in the future, perhaps as a consultant or employee.

Download PDF Brochure >

Features

Nearly 500,000 Diverse and Creative Minds

Our network of Solvers – all separately and specifically registered with InnoCentive – report expertise in a variety of fields including chemistry, life sciences, engineering, statistics, information technology, food and crop science, and business. They are located all around the world and nearly 60% are educated to Masters Level or above.

Nearly 500,000 Diverse and Creative Minds

Our network of Solvers – all separately and specifically registered with InnoCentive – report expertise in a variety of fields including chemistry, life sciences, engineering, statistics, information technology, food and crop science, and business. They are located all around the world and nearly 60% are educated to Masters Level or above.

Challenge Types to Meet All Needs

We have five main types of Challenges, allowing you to find anything from early-stage ideas to full prototypes:

Ideation Challenges: run a global brainstorm for breakthrough ideas
Theoretical Challenges: receive in-depth written proposals.
Reduction to Practice (RTP) Challenges: receive experimentally validated solutions.
Electronic Request for Partner (eRFP) Challenges: discover partners or suppliers.
Showcase Challenges: uncover innovative entrepreneurs or startups within a particular discipline.

Challenge Types to Meet All Needs

We have five main types of Challenges, allowing you to find anything from early-stage ideas to full prototypes:

Ideation Challenges: run a global brainstorm for breakthrough ideas
Theoretical Challenges: receive in-depth written proposals.
Reduction to Practice (RTP) Challenges: receive experimentally validated solutions.
Electronic Request for Partner (eRFP) Challenges: discover partners or suppliers.
Showcase Challenges: uncover innovative entrepreneurs or startups within a particular discipline.

Rapid Access to Ideas and Solutions

IP treatments and award amounts are agreed to by all parties upfront. Following the conclusion of a Challenge, you promptly gain access to awarded ideas and solutions – no subsequent contract negotiations lasting months and stopping momentum.