How the Open Innovation Marketplace Works

The Open Innovation Marketplace has three key components

An organisation with a problem – Seekers
Our Challenge Design Consultants who help seekers identify and define the problem so it can be understood and solved quickly by…
Our 500,000+ strong smart crowd – Solvers

How it works for Seekers

Workshop to explore and identify viable problems

We formulate into Challenges

10 - 30 days

We consider IP treatment and provide Solver agreements

We launch and prototype Challenge/s

30 - 90 days

We facilitate Solver Q&As

We evaluate Solutions

30 - 60 days

We verify Solution/s and Award Solver/s

78% success rate delivering Problem to Solution in 2-6 months!

Our Open Innovation Marketplace is the world’s biggest innovation community of Solvers, with expertise in areas as diverse as business, technology, chemistry, life sciences, engineering, statistics, food and crop science and much more. They’re located around the world, and are typically educated to Masters level or above.

You don't have to assess job applications or resumes. You don't have to search the globe to find Solvers yourself. You can post your toughest challenges, in the form of prize-based competitions, to our global network of Solvers. This is Challenge Driven Innovation^TM at work.

The power of the crowd

The world’s biggest innovation community of 500,000+ expert problem solvers
Fast access to ideas that can become solutions to your business problems
Cost-effective approach
Possible to take you in new directions, with the opportunity for other income streams
Well-honed process means we’ll present you with solutions in a useable way

Unbeatable Results

78% Challenge success rate
A proven open innovation ROI of 182% in under 2-months
Open Innovation is 10x cheaper and 4x faster than traditional methods
This is why companies like NASA, DARPA, Enel, AstraZeneca, and Novartis choose our Open Innovation Marketplace

Learn more about how our unique Challenge Driven Innovation powers Open Innovation success here

How it works for Solvers

Register as a Solver

View potential Challenges

Accept Challenge Terms

Work on Solution individually or collaborate

Submit Solution

Win Award

Solve some of the world's greatest problems plus over $40M in Solver awards granted already

Visit our Challenge Center and find an open Challenge you think you can tackle.
Login or register to see the full details of the Challenge and open a Project Room. You will also need to accept the Challenge Specific Agreement (CSA) and our Terms of Use. Find out more about CSAs here.
Develop your solution. The required deliverables will be specified in the Challenge description and can range from written proposals to prototypes. If you have any questions, you can message the InnoCentive team via your Project Room.
Submit your solution before the Challenge deadline. Only InnoCentive and the Seeker for that Challenge can view your solution.
After the Challenge deadline, the Seeker will evaluate your submission. Once this stage is completed, you will be notified via email as to whether or not your submission has been selected for an award. For Theoretical and RTP Challenges, you will also receive feedback on your submission from the Seeker.