Win a prize from the government

The government is offering prizes to get people to innovate and to solve problems.

“Inducement prizes” (as opposed to “recognition prizes,” like the Nobel or the MacArthur or the Pulitzer) make up a major part of the Obama administration’s grand Strategy for American Innovation. Last year, outlining its vision for a more competitive America, the White House said the government “should take advantage of the expertise and insight of people both inside and outside” Washington by using “high-risk, high-reward policy tools such as prizes and challenges to solve tough problems.” . . .

In 2009, the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of Congress, published a thorough survey of government prizes and their efficacy. To work best, it said, the challenge needs to be big (a question interesting enough to pique interest), specific (a question that can be answered) and rewarding (a question worth answering, with a prize worth winning). The top of its list of best practices reads: “The contest goal is widely judged to be worth pursuing and is in fact among the most important challenges facing the nation.” The prizewinning answer needs to offer “substantial” benefit to society, ideally in a “high-risk but high-reward” contest.

Thus far, the embryonic Challenge.gov is not always living up to that standard. For one, some of the prizes are way too small – as little as $1,000. And not all of the prizes are of demonstrable social value. For instance, one challenge asks participants to take an image from the National Archives “and mash it with the everyday world for a unique perspective on history today.” Winners, the contest notes, “will be featured in a National Archives postcard book.”

But the site does include some big fish – such as the Energy Department’s $15 million effort to design better light bulbs or the government-backed, just-completed $10 million X Prize to design a production-ready four-person car with 100-mile-per-gallon fuel efficiency.

via Challenge.gov in long tradition of giving prizes for solutions to tough problems.

So is there a lack of innovation in the technology world?  If someone invented a car that would get 100 miles per gallon, wouldn’t he or she make a lot of money anyway?

At any rate, go to Challenge.gov. Look at all of the prizes that are being offered. Maybe you too can win one.