Transcript 6.6 Oil-spill-response Prize

Oil-spill-response Prize
Instead of making small, incremental
steps through the usual RFP
process, we are considering
establishing a purse prize to reward
a successful, innovative solution to a
problem in oil spill response.
PWS Oil Spill Recovery Institute looking for partners
Leveraging a prize on the order
of $50-100K+, we save on the
large R&D cost.
We pay for a successful solution
rather than an individual
attempts to provide a solution.
Inspiration from the X Prize
SpaceShipOne and White Knight
Oct. 4, 2004
Team awarded $10M for designing
first private spaceship to fly to the
edge of space, an endeavor that
jump-started the personal
spaceflight industry.
Creating a Global Network to
Solve R&D Problems:
“Local vs. Broadcast Search”
InnoCentive
www.innocentive.com
OSRI Board members are encouraged to register as “Solvers” at the
InnoCentive website to view example problem statements currently posted.
Our Key Resource: Untapped Talent Pools
Local Search vs. Broadcast Search
LOCAL SEARCH
 US, EU Academics
 Preferred Contract labs
 Individual networks
BROADCAST SEARCH
 Global Academia
 Scientists in other fields
 Excess capacity
 Retirees
Proprietary and Confidential
Traditional
networks
Nontraditional
pools of
intellectual
capacity
How InnoCentive Works Today
InnoCentive
Scientific Operations
Seeker Organizations
Solvers
Proprietary and Confidential
InnoCentive’s Share of (Global) Mind
>95,000 “solvers”
80,000 Solvers
in over 40 scientific disciplines
= Countries With Registered Solvers
Proprietary and Confidential
Results
•
•
•
•
Over 350 challenges posted
>95,000 solvers (>150 countries)
>125 awards to date (many under review/pending)
Global source of solutions
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
Argentina
Canada
China
Denmark
Egypt
Germany
India
Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- N.Ireland
- Philippines
- Poland
- Romania
- Russia
-Singapore
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Thailand
- UK
- USA
Process for OSRI & partners
1. OSRI STC & partners determine problem statement
2. Enter into contract with InnoCentive ($2,000 to post challenge, ~$25K access
fee for ~2 years). InnoCentive gets a 20% commission on the award.
3. InnoCentive provides the following services:
•
Help defining terms of “success” in the problem statement. Can have multiple
problem statement.
•
Marketing the challenge
•
Screening questions from solvers
•
Surveying the solvers to see where they are in progress
•
Packaging the submissions and conducting preliminary review. If they think
the solver didn’t answer the problem they go back to solver.
•
Sends OSRI & partners the cleaned up submission
•
Seekers and Solvers are anonymous if we want. Solvers are anonymous until
we decide which solution gets the size. This way you judge on the science not
the pedigree of who it is.
Some Example Problem Statements for OSRI and partners:
1 dispersant that is effective, non-toxic and affordable
2 technology to quantify effectiveness of dispersant (such as fluorometry
that can account for the chemical complexity of hydrocarbons in oil)
3 open water skimmer for stormy sea conditions
4 technology to use a material to make oil easier to clean up (coagulant)
6
technology for removing oil from ice-covered water
7
dome deployed from oil spill response vessel to contain oil leaking
upward from a submerged pipe
8
procedure for de-icing rope mop skimmers
9
method to break shear of viscous oil so that it flows into a pump
intake
12-7 simulants (develop environmentally acceptable, surrogate oil for
experiments and responder training in a realistic at-sea
environment)
Where we are in the process:
-Katey Walter is collecting example problem statements
to submit to InnoCentive
-OSRI Board approval on process, Sept. 12
-InnoCentive screens submitted problem statements for
plausibility
-OSRI enters into official partnership with co-sponsors,
and contract with InnoCentive
-InnoCentive holds ‘idea generation workshop’ in Alaska
to help us define and hone the problem statement(s)
-InnoCentive goes to conferences, advertises in
journals…