Grand challenge prizes?

I did want to draw special attention to one part of the Administration's new innovation strategy report (see earlier posting). At the end of the paper, there is a list of possible "Grand Challenges" of the 21st Century:

•   Complete DNA sequencing of every case of cancer; smart anti-cancer therapeutics that kill cancer cells and leave their normal neighbors untouched; early detection of dozens of diseases from a saliva sample; nanotechnology that delivers drugs precisely to the desired tissue; personalized medicine that enables the prescription of the right dose of the right drug for the right person; a universal vaccine for influenza that will protect against all future strains; and regenerative medicine that can end the agonizing wait for an organ transplant.

•   Solar cells as cheap as paint, and green buildings that produce all of the energy they consume.

•   A light-weight vest for soldiers and police officers that can stop an armor-piercing bullet.

•   Educational software that is as compelling as the best video game and as effective as a personal tutor; online courses that improve the more students use them; and a rich, interactive digital library at the fingertips of every child.

•   Intelligent prosthetics that will allow a veteran who has lost both of his arms to play the piano again.

•   Biological systems that can turn sunlight into carbon-neutral fuel, reduce the costs of producing anti-malarial drugs by a factor of 10, and quickly and inexpensively dispose of radioactive wastes and toxic chemicals.

•   An "exascale" supercomputer capable of a million trillion calculations per second - dramatically increasing our ability to understand the world around us through simulation and slashing the time needed to design complex products such as therapeutics, advanced materials, and highly-efficient autos and aircraft.

•   Automatic, highly accurate and real-time translation between the major languages of the world - greatly lowering the barriers to international commerce and collaboration.

The list is generally a free standing section of the report tied only indirectly. Tom Kalil, Deputy Director of OSTP and also on the staff of the NEC, has long been a proponent of incentive prizes as a research funding mechanism (see his posting earlier this year on the White House blog). Could we be seeing the list of soon to be sponsored research prizes?