Monday, February 17, 2014

Innocentive Challenges (1st half of February)

Posted by Inkblot On 1:39 AM

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Do you know someone who would be a great Solver? Forward this Challenge Bulletin to a friend, or share an individual Challenge below.

Featured Challenges:
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Konica Minolta Challenge: Disruptive Technologies to Enhance the Way We Do Business
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Konica Minolta is launching new innovation initiatives and wishes to identify disruptive technology business opportunities in the Information Technology space. How can new technologies be applied to enable businesses to deliver new or improved services to end users?
It is also the intention of Konica Minolta to broaden its network of experts and technology visionaries – this Challenge is an opportunity to help shape the future of customer/end user engagement.
This is an Ideation Challenge with a guaranteed award of $5,000 for at least one submitted solution. In addition, it is the intent of Konica Minolta to reward truly outstanding proposals with an additional sum, for a total of up to $10,000.
Challenge 9933521
Deadline: March 14, 2014; 11:59 PM EST
Reward: $5,000read-more2.gif
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Quantifying the Number of Post-Secondary Certificates and Certifications with Significant Economic Impact
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Lumina Foundation, the Seeker for this Challenge, has issued Goal 2025 – to increase the number of adults in the United States obtaining high-quality, documented, post-secondary education from roughly 44% to more than 60%.  A key difficulty in measuring progress towards Goal 2025 is that there is no readily available, national data on the number of individuals who obtain non-degreepost-secondary certificates and certifications that significantly improve their economic circumstances.  This Challenge requests that Solvers provide novel concepts for determining this information using non-traditional datasets or data sources (rather than the US Census used for quantifying associate’s and bachelor’s degrees). 

This is an Ideation Challenge with a guaranteed award for at least one submitted solution.
Challenge 9933173
Deadline: March 15, 2014
Reward: $10,000read-more2.gif
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Creating Stellar Support Services for Psoriasis Patients
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Patient Support Services are a significant part of the patient experience when using pharmaceutical agents for debilitating diseases. These include the helpful information, refill reminders and support that are visible to the patient, as well as the behind-the-scenes services that support the healthcare provider (HCP) and enable rapid delivery of the treatment.  Psoriasis is a chronic condition characterized by red, itchy patches of skin. The disease spectrum ranges from a mild nuisance to a disabling condition, especially in patients who also develop arthritis. The focus of this Challenge is to identify how to create an innovative and best-in-class patient support service experience for a new product that serves the psoriasis patient market. 

This is an Ideation Challenge with a guaranteed award for at least one submitted solution.
Challenge 9933531
Deadline: March 03, 2014; 11:59 PM EST
Reward: $15,000read-more2.gif
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ARPA-E Challenge on Optimizing Biofuels: Non-Destructive Energy Measurement of Plants
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The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) advances high-impact energy technologies through sponsored activities such as the PETRO program, short for “Plants Engineered to Replace Oil.” The availability of cost-effective, renewable substitutes to fossil-based transportation fuels remains limited. A goal of the PETRO program is to genetically engineer new crops to produce fuels that can be extracted from the plant itself, in contrast to traditional research in the area that focuses on breeding larger plants. To do this most effectively, ARPA-E desires an innovative method for measuring the energy content within plant tissues in such a way that the plant remains viable for propagation. Such measurements would ideally quantify the total energy content of the plant tissues less lignocellulosic biomass. However, measurement of selected energy rich molecules, be they a specific compound or a class of compounds (e.g. volatiles) would be an acceptable secondary outcome. The award amount for this Challenge varies from $5,000 to $30,000 based on the breadth of compounds the proposed solution can measure.


This Challenge requires only a written proposal.
Challenge 9933435
Deadline: February 21, 2014
Reward: $30,000read-more2.gif
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Seeking Oxazin-4-one and Thiazin-4-one Analogues
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Material supply of non-commercial compounds matching the shown core structure is desired. The Seeker has provided further details about the specific structures being requested in the Detailed Description of the Challenge. The Seeker intends to award multiple Solvers for each of their qualifying submissions.

Intellectual Property:  In return for the Initial Transfer Fee of $300 per compound, you are expected to grant the Seeker only a non-exclusive license to use your compound for internal, research purposes (for example, researching the molecule’s properties or preparing derivatives of the molecule). 
Challenge 9933227
Deadline: February 27 , 2014
Reward: variesread-more2.gif
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Genmab Challenge: Pioneering Applications for DuoBody Technology
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Genmab is looking for innovative concepts for the treatment of important human diseases with bispecific antibodies generated with its DuoBody technology.
Therapeutic antibodies are revolutionizing the treatment of many diseases including cancer and inflammatory diseases. Bispecific antibodies provide an exciting opportunity for developing directed potent therapies, which are based on their dual binding properties. Genmab has developed a novel and versatile technology for the discovery and development of bispecific antibodies. This technology is termed the DuoBody platform.
The goal of this Challenge is to leverage the DuoBody platform and identify pioneering concepts for the generation of bispecific antibodies for the treatment of human diseases.
Genmab is also interested in identifying potential collaboration partners with innovative insights and proposals – research grants of up to $100,000 (direct costs) ­– are available for negotiation with the institutions to which winning Solvers are affiliated.
This Challenge requires only a written proposal.Challenge 9933495
Deadline: February 18, 2014; 11:59 PM EST
Reward: $35,000read-more2.gif
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Seeking Oxathiazine and Dithiazine Analogues
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Material supply of non-commercial compounds matching the shown core structure is desired. The Seeker has provided further details about the specific structures being requested, as well as a reference for the synthesis of compounds in this class, in the Detailed Description of the Challenge. The Seeker intends to award multiple Solvers for each of their qualifying submissions. 

Intellectual Property:  In return for the Initial Transfer Fee of $300 per compound, you are expected to grant the Seeker only a non-exclusive license to use your compound for internal, research purposes (for example, researching the molecule’s properties or preparing derivatives of the molecule). 
Challenge 9933224
Deadline: February 27 , 2014
Reward: variesread-more2.gif
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Easy Plasterboard Jointing
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The Seeker desires an easier way to join plasterboards that significantly reduces the overall cost of the jointing process. 


This is a Reduction-to-Practice Challenge that requires a written proposal and experimental proof-of-concept data (and/or sample delivery). 
Challenge 9933478
Deadline: March 19, 2014
Reward: $40,000read-more2.gif
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Seeking 4(1H)-Pyridinone Analogue
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Material supply of non-commercial compounds matching the shown core structure is desired.    The Seeker has provided further details about the specific structures being requested, as well as references for the synthesis of compounds in this class, in the Detailed Description of the Challenge.  The Seeker intends to award multiple Solvers for each of their qualifying submissions. 
Intellectual Property:  In return for the Initial Transfer Fee of $300 per compound, you are expected to grant the Seeker only a non-exclusive license to use your compound for internal, research purposes (for example, researching the molecule’s properties or preparing derivatives of the molecule). 
Challenge 9933223
Deadline: February 24 , 2014
Reward: variesread-more2.gif