Ideas Only Needed to Apply! Harvard and InnoCentive Launch Diabetes Competition

Sarai Tsai | February 9, 2010

It’s not always easy to motivate people and encourage fresh ideas, especially when tackling long-standing health problems that appear unsolvable. But with a growing trend toward competitions for bragging rights and prize money, innovation itself may be rejuvenated.

Harvard Catalyst and InnoCentive, a web community for open innovation, have announced a series of contests for “out-of-the-box questions and proposals” related to type 1 diabetes. Prizes between $2,500 and $10,000 will be given for the best questions or ideas as determined by a review panel. Funding is provided by NIH stimulus grant money.

As the InnoCentive site states, “This is a somewhat unusual Ideation Challenge in the sense that the Solvers are not expected to provide a solution to any problem.” Testable, researchable questions and ideas about Type 1 diabetes – its biology, its progression, its clinical presentation, its complications, etc. – will be accepted until March 1, 2010.

Learn how to apply after the break.

While the competition is advertised as only for the Harvard community (faculty, students, and administrators and staff of all levels and specialties, including at affiliated academic healthcare centers), the InnoCentive website has a link for interested parties not Harvard-affiliated. Diabetes experts need not be the only ones to apply – those with no experience with Type 1 diabetes are welcome to propose an idea. Submit your idea here.

Type I diabetes (often called juvenile diabetes) is the condition when the body destroys insulin cells, leading to increased glucose levels. Currently insulin injections are the most common treatment.

Interested in other competitions? Check out our Funding tab and search for more. Let us know about any other competitions that we can add!

Source: InnoCentive