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January 25, 2007
Prizes for R&D
David Wessel's Capital column in today's Wall Street Journal is about prizes as a research incentive. In the piece, he discusses the standard prizes for invention from solving the navigation problem of longitude to the Netflix $1 million prize for a better algorithm. He also discussed more innovative approaches - the web site InnoCentive and the X-Prize Foundation. What I found fascinating was the evaluation of prizes as incentives, especially the studies of InnoCentive:
One surprise: The further the problem was from a solver's expertise, the more likely he or she was to solve it. It turns out that outsiders look through a completely different lens. Toxicologists were stumped by the significance of pathology observed in a study; within weeks after broadcasting it, a Ph.D. in crystallography offered a solution that hadn't occurred to them.
Thus, prizes have the benefit of opening up the research to new ideas. In a time of heavy specialization and, what some see as strong gatekeepers to research funding, new mechanisms for fresh approaches are needed. Tapping into the intellectual entrepreneurship of the world through prizes seems to be one of the best new mechanisms around. May it continue to flourish and expand.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at January 25, 2007 10:50 AM
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See also David Leonhardt's piece in the New York Times "You Want Innovation? Offer a Prize"
Posted by: Ken Jarboe ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.athenaalliance.org/weblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 31, 2007 11:14 AM