InnoCentive Links Problems and Problem-Solvers 

InnoCentive is one of the leading companies in crowdsourcing, open innovation, and incentive contests. It recently announced a partnership with Popular Science magazine to facilitate open innovation and greater collaboration in solving challenges in technology, science, and engineering.

With the fast pace of technological change, many companies have seen the benefits of licensing needed technologies or buying a partner or competitor that has it in order to stay competitive. But, what if it’s a problem you haven’t yet solved and would like to do so as quickly as possible? As Adrienne J. Burke wrote recently for The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine, “In a day and age when ‘thinking outside the box’ is universally touted as the fastest path to scientific and technological innovation, incentive prize contests have come to be seen as one of the most creative ways to generate groundbreaking ideas.”

InnoCentive is one of the leading companies in crowdsourcing, open innovation, and incentive contests. It recently announced a partnership with Popular Science magazine to facilitate open innovation and greater collaboration in solving challenges in technology, science, and engineering. I love Popular Science, so this caught my eye, but digging into the InnoCentive site revealed an impressive range of activities and partnerships for the 10-year old company.

InnoCentive’s method of open innovation has fueled progress in areas ranging from oil spill recovery and energy solutions for rural Africa to improved treatments for tuberculosis and biomarkers for deadly diseases. Leading commercial, public sector, and non-profit organizations such as Eli Lilly, Medtronic, NASA, nature.com, Procter & Gamble, Roche, Rockefeller Foundation, and The Economist partner with InnoCentive to help them solve their most pressing problems and challenges.

InnoCentive says it believes that, “By unleashing human creativity, passion, and diversity, we can solve problems that matter to business and society. Once you untether the search for solutions from an individual, department, or company, amazing things happen. Problems are solved better, faster, and at a lower cost than ever before.”