Our Solvers
Use your skills and experience to solve InnoCentive Challenges and win cash awards.
Anyone can join our Solver network of 380,000+ diverse and creative minds. We provide a steady supply of Challenges from a wide array of disciplines for you to tackle, requiring anything from a short outline of your solution to a prototype.
Do you want to solve problems that matter? Sign up to InnoCentive to join our Solver network. After sign-up you’ll have access to problems from a diverse set of corporations, public sector agencies and non-profits from around the world – what we call ‘Seekers’.
If your solution is chosen by a Seeker you will receive an award. The average award amount for a Challenge is $20,000 but some offer awards of over $100,000.
InnoCentive acts as an intermediary, protecting your intellectual property and insuring solutions are evaluated on merit alone.
Getting Started
Check out the open Challenges in the Challenge Center.
We publish new Challenges all the time. Signing up to our Challenge Bulletin or following us on Twitter are great ways to keep up-to-date with the latest Challenges
Open a project room.
When a Challenge summary catches your interest, you’ll need to log in or register and then sign the Challenge agreement in order to open a project room. A project room is a secure space where you can view the confidential detailed description, see technical requirements, ask the Seeker questions, and submit solutions.
Develop your solution.
If you get stuck, consider finding a teammate, reviewing the Solver resources, or messaging the Seeker via the Challenge’s project room.
Submit a Solution.
Each Challenge has its own time-frame for accepting solutions. You can submit up to 10 separate solutions to each Challenge. You can also revise your submissions at any time while the Challenge is open but if your submission has already been forwarded to the Seeker, you will need to submit a new one.
Forming a Team
Many Challenges offer the opportunity for cross-functional collaboration. With InnoCentive’s Team Project Rooms (TPR), you can assemble your dream team of smart and motivated peers. Team Project Rooms are primed for collaboration. We take care of legal agreements to facilitate intellectual property rights and award sharing. Team Project Rooms also provide a private discussion forum and the ability to upload, share, and discuss documents with your teammates.
To open a team project room, click the “Form a Team” tab in the Challenge project room.
“We have a good mix in our team. I have a background in engineering. So, I have a good grasp of things from an implementation perspective. Sasha has a background in Economics thereby providing the bigger macroscopic picture.”
Intellectual Property
We take the utmost precautions to ensure that your intellectual property is protected. Only InnoCentive and the Seeker posting a Challenge can view the proposed solutions. Additionally, both the Seeker and the Solvers sign legal agreements protecting confidential information. Although Seekers are sometimes anonymous to Solvers, they are never anonymous to InnoCentive.
InnoCentive has a 16-year track record of protecting and securely facilitating the transfer of intellectual property; this is a vital and core function of our business.
Challenge-Specific Details
Each Challenge will also have its own terms or Challenge-Specific Agreement (CSA) – an agreement between the Solver and the Seeker, detailing the rights and responsibilities of the respective parties, the license of use for submitted or awarded solutions and the awarding process. The CSA and InnoCentive’s Terms of Use must both be agreed to by the Solver before you can view the full details of an InnoCentive Challenge and submit your solution.
Broadly speaking however, each Challenge will conform to the terms of its particular Challenge type – Ideation, Theoretical, Reduction-to-Practice (RTP) and Electronic Request for Partners (eRFP). The key points to note are:
Theoretical-Licensing Challenge: If a Seeker grants you the full award amount for a Theoretical-Licensing Challenge, you agree to provide a perpetual, non-exclusive license to the Intellectual Property Rights contained in your submission. If offered a partial award, you have the option to reject it and retain your Intellectual Property Rights
Theoretical-IP-Transfer or Reduction to Practice (RTP) Challenge: If a Seeker grants you the full award amount for a Theoretical-IP-Transfer or Reduction to Practice Challenge, you agree to transfer all Intellectual Property Rights contained in your submission. If offered a partial award, you have the option to reject it and retain your Intellectual Property Rights.
Ideation Challenge: By submitting to an Ideation Challenge, you agree to provide the Seeker with a royalty-free, non-exclusive perpetual license to use the ideas contained within. This agreement is NOT contingent on receiving an award, however Ideation Challenges do guarantee that the award will be paid out in full to participating Solver(s). Solutions to Ideation Challenges should not contain content owned by a third party.
When you submit to any Theoretical or Reduction to Practice Challenge, you are granting the Seeker a temporary 90 day exclusive license for the Intellectual Property Rights contained in your submission.
Why Solve
Make a Positive Impact
Our Solvers have contributed to tackling some of the world’s most pressing problems – whether it’s facilitating access to clean water at a household level or passive solar devices designed to attract & kill malaria-carrying mosquitos.
German engineer and Solver Joern Lutat’s solution for a “Low-cost Rainwater Storage System”, has now been distributed by the Seeker all around Uganda: Women who used to carry water to their villages from distant water sources (3.7 miles roundtrip on average) are now able to spend more time working in the fields or taking care of children—a major economic benefit for the family. Teenage girls who used to help with the daily water carrying will now be able to attend school.
Exercise Your Brain
Challenges are real problems requiring sustained concentration, critical thinking, research, creativity, and synthesis of knowledge. Developing a solution is incredibly rewarding and an unparalleled mental workout.
“I love this site as a model for community problem solving that has options for thinkers at any level—even if you don’t have a lab, or are just starting out in science or engineering, it’s an excellent way to hone your critical thinking and creativity.”
Laurie Parker, winner of “Combinatorial polypeptides”
Promote Yourself & Earn Awards
We’ve awarded more than $20 million to thousands of brilliant Solvers from around the world. But, it’s not just about the financial reward. Whether you list your award on your CV or join the exclusive Winning Solvers group on LinkedIn, your accomplishment is guaranteed to attract attention.
“I’ve been interviewed by several magazines, including Forbes, Business Week, Business 2.0, MIT Technology Review, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe. I’ve been interviewed on NPR, and was invited to give a lecture on crowdsourcing at IMD, a business school in Lausanne, Switzerland. So, I have greatly benefitted from being an InnoCentive problem solver, much more than by the financial award I received.”
David Bradin, winner of “Synthesis to 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid”