There are a number of well-known awards recognizing innovation in government. The most prominent is the Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center for Democratic Governance’s “Innovations in American Government Awards.” But these awards shine a spotlight on existing efforts. The new twist to innovation awards these days is to spark innovation by offering a reward to solve previously unsolved problems.
This new twist isn’t really that new. As long ago as the 1600s, prizes were used to encourage innovation by compensating research results with monetary rewards or medals. Historically, these prizes have been used to spark innovations in areas such as mathematics, medicine, and technology. For example, the British government sponsored a prize in 1714 for the first inventor of an instrument for accurately measuring longitude at sea. And a privately-funded prize encouraged Charles Lindbergh to become the first solo pilot to fly nonstop from New York to Paris in 1927.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Spurring Innovation via Contests and Prizes
Author: John M. Kamensky,Jonathan D. Breul
