Nesta, an innovation foundation, has launched the Inventor Prize aimed at anyone from individual inventors to small teams and small companies, based or residing in the UK.
Working in partnership with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the aim of the prize is to help get innovative new products out of the – literal or proverbial – shed and into the market.
The only criteria are that the product has to help make people’s lives better and to enter the applicant has to have a working model of their design.
£50,000 will be awarded to the finalist that best demonstrates meeting the judging criteria. There will also be two runner up prizes of £5,000 and £15,000.
“At its simplest, inventing is problem solving. It’s working out how to improve existing solutions or coming up with something new that could fill a gap no one else has seen. But coming up with an idea is only part of the journey.
“Right now, we know that people across the UK have ideas that, with a bit of support, could be developed into fantastic products that would help improve people’s daily lives and tackle some of the big issues facing the UK, however, that ‘lightbulb moment’ is only the first step of many for an inventor,” says Charlotte Macken, programme manager in Nesta’s Centre for Challenge Prizes.
The prize will seek to:
- Support the development of selected products
- Build the capacity of prize participants (inventors)
- Champion and raise the profile of the lone or small scale inventor
Entrants must submit their online application by 22 October 2017.
