Rockefeller Innovation Challenges

To mark the centennial of The Rockefeller Foundation, we are seeking the knowledge and innovative ideas that will solve problems for the next 100 years.

Innovative Ideas for Decoding Data, Irrigating Efficiency, and Farming Now address key levers for change and will create significant impact. What these ideas could look like is still largely unknown. The Innovation Challenges are designed to discover and reward ideas that show unique promise for addressing global needs from a variety of geographies, perspectives, and contexts.

All challenge entrants will be competing for an accolade from The Rockefeller Foundation. Additionally, fifteen challenge finalists will be considered for up to nine, $100,000 grants and recognition at The Rockefeller Innovation Forum.

The challenge will open online for ideas on April 2, 2012 and close on May 25, 2012. Challenge finalists will be announced at The Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Forum on June 28, 2012

Important Dates

April 2, 2012	Open for Entries
May 25, 2012	Deadline for Entries
June 28, 2012	Finalists Announced
August 2012	Grant Process Begins

Eligibility

Challenge entrants may include individuals, organizations, formal or informal entities, i.e. an association, guild, student group, or village. Individuals submitting an idea, hereafter referred to as the entrant, on behalf of a group should be fully authorized by that group to do so. Any informal entities will need to affiliate with a formal authorized entity to apply for funding.

To be eligible for consideration, each entrant must:

• Agree to any and all legal terms and conditions of the challenge.
• Submit an entry form with all required fields completed through the challenge website http://centennial.rockefellerfoundation.org/challenge or by email to info@innovationchallenges.org.
• Be willing to provide material and references in support of their ideas should they be requested by The Rockefeller Foundation or its challenge team.
• If selected as a finalist, and if after preparing a proposal that is funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, the awardee must agree to use the grant money to further develop the idea.
• If the entrant’s idea is selected as a finalist to prepare a proposal, and is awarded funding, the awardee must agree to comply with all national and international laws governing the transfer of any grant, monetary or otherwise, across national and international boundaries.
• Are available to be contacted by email or telephone at any point in the evaluation process, and are available (if requested) for a site visit by a member of the evaluation committee.
• Submit the entry in English.
• Complete the entry form and submit or send it before the deadline of May 25, 2012, by 11:59:59 p.m. EDT.

Criteria

Finalists in each category of the Innovation Challenges will meet the following criteria.

Innovation Challenges finalists will be those ideas that:

• Are new ideas or are existing ideas applied in a new geography, audience, or context.
• Uniquely and specifically respond to the category problem statement.
• Successfully clear the challenge due diligence process.
• Show the most promise for catalytic innovation, impact, context, and spark, as assessed by the challenge team and panel of independent expert judges.
• Garner high scores, ten being the top score using the scoring system below, from the independent panel of judges in the following areas:
  • Catalytic Innovation (4 points) The extent to which the idea:
    • Shows potential for scaling and replication
    • Replaces an existing solution that is not leading to sufficient action or impact
    •  Accounts for risks and potential unintended consequences
  • Impact (3 points) The extent to which the idea could significantly benefit the global community if implemented because it:
    • Improves the livelihoods of the poor or vulnerable
    • Addresses the challenge by building resilience and promoting growth with equity
    • If an economic intervention, shapes markets for multi-faceted, economic, social, or environmental benefit
    • If a technology, disrupts a widespread destructive practice, replaces an underperforming tool, radically improves efficiency for both products and by-products, or alters how information already available in another form is understood
  • Context (2 points) The extent to which the idea responds to context:
    • Accounts for specific contexts (geographies, beliefs, norms)
    • If a social change, is rooted in a methodology or process
    • If a technology, is not unduly burdened with proprietary rules governing its use(s) and is rooted in a methodology or process
    • Is refined in its purpose and goal
    • Attempts to solve a particular problem (or a set of problems)
  • Spark (1 point) The extent to which the idea:
    • Generates collective excitement for its originality, expression, and potential

Opportunity

There will be fifteen finalists, each finalist will receive:

• An accolade from The Rockefeller Foundation on the Centennial Website
• Recognition/publicity at The Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Forum
• An opportunity to collaborate with The Rockefeller Foundation as it builds the Global Engagement Network, a network of problem solvers focused on our issue areas. The Foundation may also ask select entrants to join the Global Engagement Network. 

In addition to the above, up to nine finalists will be selected to receive funding. Each of these nine finalists will receive:

• Marketing and positioning support from Context Partners, the challenge designers, including support in refining the idea and developing funding proposals.  

Moreinfo: http://centennial.rockefellerfoundation.org/challenge