Stephen A. Merrill, Ph.D Executive Director

1. Non-Medical Innovation Prizes Stephen A. Merrill, Ph.D Executive Director Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) Medical Innovation Prizes as a Mechanism to Promote Innovation and Access UNU-MERIT The Netherlands January 28-29, 2008

2. 2 STEP BOARD • Going from A to B: Transportation Prizes • Longitude Prize, 1714-73 (safe ocean navigation) • Orteig Prize,1927 (solo New York-Paris flight, following prizes for cross- Channel and North Atlantic flights ) • Anheuser-Busch Prize(circumnavigation by balloon) • Kremer Prize (human-powered flight) • Cheap Accessto Space Prize, 2000 • Ansari X-Prize, 2004 (sub-orbital flight without government assistance) • NASA Centennial Challenges,2005-6 (power beaming from space, space "elevator") • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge, 2004-5 (autonomous surface vehicle over a desert course) • DARPA Urban Challenge, 2008 (autonomous ground vehicle over an urban course)

3. 3 STEP BOARD • Other Diverse Prize Competitions • Synthetic alkali, 1775 • Vacuum-sealed food for military operations, 1795-1810 • Super-efficient refrigerator prize, 1991-93 • Cooperative computing challenge (Electronic Frontier Foundation) • Computerized human conversation (Loebner Prize for artificial intelligence) • Nanoscale robot (Feynman Prize) • Farmat's Last Theorem proof (Wolfskehl Prize) • Mathematical problem solutions (Clay Institute Millennium Prizes) • Arsenic removal from drinking water (U. S. National Academy of Engineering Grainger Prize) • Rapid, low-cost gene sequencing (X-Prize Foundation)

4. 4 STEP BOARD • Recent U.S. Endorsements of Government-Sponsored Prizes • NAE, Concerning Federally Sponsored Inducement Prizes in Engineering and Science (1999) • Newell & Wilson, Technology Prizes for Climate Change Mitigation (RFF, 2005) • Kalil, Prizes for Technological Innovation (Brookings Hamilton Project, 2006) • STEP Board, Innovation Inducement Prizes at the National Science Foundation (NAP, 2007)

5. Novel Subject Candidates (STEP, Kalil) • Sensitive, cost-effective chemical sensors for pollutants • Nano self-assembly • Green chemical products, processes • Low-carbon energy technologies • Catalysts for converting cellulosic biomass • Computing architecture advances • Learning technology for teaching reading, K-12 science and math • Solar sailcraft • New crop varieties suited to Africa • Hydrogen production, storage, distribution • Zero-energy buildings, appliances • Cost-effective solar cells

6. Diverse Multiple Goals • Technology Goals • accomplish a technological breakthrough • stimulate nascent or stalled technologies • stretch existing technologies by demonstrating their utility • stimulate private market for, diffusion of an existing technology • apply technology to a seemingly intractable social problem • adapt existing technology to a less developed economy • Ancillary Goals • pay for outputs, induce private investment in inputs • involve nontraditional participants and encourage unorthodox approaches • encourage collaboration, build social capital • educate, inspire non-participant public

7. Design Elements • Selection of topics, goals, and objectives • Type: typically best-in-class or first-past-the-post • Administration • Source and size of purse or other award • Participation, registration, screening, rules compliance, interest conflicts • Liability • Private property rights • Award process and appeals • Promotion • Evaluation

8. Comparison of Recent Prize Competitions

9. Cont., Comparison of Recent Prize Competitions

10. Challenges and Limitations • Identifying topics, objectives suitable to specifying outcomes in advance • Specifying proxies for general goals (e.g., cost-efficiency) • Higher consequences of failure • Duplication of effort • Inhibit information exchange • Discourage some would-be innovators

11. 11 STEP BOARD E-mail: smerrill@nas.edu Website:http://www.nas.edu/step