Go to Rockefeller Innovation for Development homepageThe Rockefeller-InnoCentive Partnership
The Rockefeller Foundation-InnoCentive Partnership will enable researchers and NGOs addressing the needs of poor or vulnerable people to access the same cutting-edge resource to innovate as Fortune 500 companies.| Are you developing products that could help the world’s most poor and vulnerable, but bumping into scientific and technological problems that impede your progress? Could it help you that there are hundreds of experts out there capable and waiting to help you answer your questions if you could just find them? Have you wished that your non-profit had access to scientists from some of the biggest corporate firms in the world to help you solve the challenges you face? |
The Rockefeller Foundation, in partnership with InnoCentive, wants to help you solve the problems and answer the questions that are bottlenecking your work and preventing the development of solutions to ease the burdens of poor and vulnerable people throughout the world.
The Rockefeller/InnoCentive partnership provides non-profit organizations access to InnoCentive’s global network of over 160,000 of the brightest minds in engineering and science, allowing organizations to reach beyond their own resources to tap into the ingenuity of human beings worldwide – from countries on the other side of the globe, to experts from other disciplines that you may have never thought to contact.
The InnoCentive network operates like a web-based marketplace, connecting organizations that have problems to solve with people who can offer solutions. Here’s how InnoCentive works:- An organization posts onto InnoCentive’s website a scientific challenge and offers an award amount for the winning solution;
- Experts from all over the world view the challenge and respond by submitting a unique solution to the problem;
- InnoCentive sends all potential solutions to the non-profit organization, which then chooses and rewards the one it deems best.
This partnership, between the Rockefeller Foundation and InnoCentive, will demonstrate the effectiveness of open innovation to the non-profit world and ultimately encourage its use more broadly across the development sector.
Since its establishment in 2007, the Rockefeller Foundation/InnoCentive partnership has successfully helped many organizations solve problems that allowed their work to advance.
- The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development discovered a more cost-effective and efficient method for manufacturing a TB drug candidate. (InnoCentive Case Study;
- The Rural Innovations network learned how to increase the energy efficiency and production quality of a plate grinding mill used by local entrepreneurs in rural India.
- The Health and Water Foundation, along with their partner Global Giving, received a design for waterless bio-latrines that will be used in rural schools in Kenya.
- SunNight Solar learned how to adapt its solar-powered flashlight for general illumination and increase its efficiency for use in sub-Saharan African countries.
Some Previous Challenges
An affordable solar powered device to prevent and/or limit the spread of malaria more Safe and economical synthetic route for PA-824, a candidate drug for tuberculosis more A design for dry-based biolatrines for rural schools in Africa more Solar-powered wireless routers moreHow to Apply for a Challenge
The Rockefeller Foundation will provide grants to cover InnoCentive’s fees to a select number of non-profit organizations. Interested organizations should submit an inquiry here.
- The challenge should fall within one of the following five disciplines:
- Chemistry
- Engineering and design (e.g., bioengineering, civil engineering, electronics)
- Food and Agriculture
- Life Sciences (e.g., biology, medicine, pharmacology)
- Physical Sciences (e.g., nanotechnology, biophysics, geology)
- The Rockefeller Foundation will review all inquiries, with input from InnoCentive
- If your proposal is accepted to be placed on the InnoCentive web marketplace and a grant is approved, organizations will then enter into a contract with innoCentive. All fees and charges will be billed to the organization directly.
- The Rockefeller Foundation’s grant will cover the costs of:
- InnoCentive’s posting fee; and
- Upon acceptance of a winning solution:
- InnoCentive’s service fee;
- One-half of the financial award; and
- Upon proven implementation of the solution:
- The second half of the financial award.
| “InnoCentive’s platform enabled me to find solutions to problems that I couldn’t find anywhere else.” - Mark Bent, Founder and CEO, SunNight Solar Read case study “It was a learning experience to see how people could think from so many different perspectives about the same problems, and the ‘out of the box’ nature of the solutions.” - Zubaida Habib, Rural Innovations Network “InnoCentive forced me to translate my social mission into something concrete…The Social mission is one thing, but the tools to realize it are another.” - Ray Umashakar, Founder and Executive Director, ASSET India |
News & Events
The Rockefeller Foundation and InnoCentive Renew PartnershipJune 23, 2009; Press release
AIDS Initiative Posts InnoCentive Challenge
December 17, 2008
Solvers Devise New Methods to Cost-Effectively Manufacture TB Drug
Press release; December 3, 2008
Debut Challenge Solved
Science by the Masses
By John Travis; Science Magazine; March 2008
Solar-Powered Light--Basis for RF-InnoCentive 'Challenge'--Featured in Newsweek
November 5, 2007; Newsweek
Wall Street Journal Examines Prizes as Spur to Innovation
January 25, 2007
Nonprofit Links to R&D Website
Chemical & Engineering News, January 3, 2007
Social Bookmarking
