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InnoCentive Honors 2010 Top Solvers, Introduces Groundbreaking Challenge Referral Program and Announces “InnoCentive Anywhere” Mobile Challenge Delivery System

Dépèche transmise le 9 juin 2011 par Business Wire

InnoCentive Honors 2010 Top Solvers, Introduces Groundbreaking Challenge Referral Program and Announces “InnoCentive Anywhere” Mobile Challenge Delivery System

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--InnoCentive, the global leader in Challenge Driven Innovation, today recognized its 2010 Top Solvers for their extraordinary efforts and announced two major enhancements to its cloud-based Challenge platform. The InnoCentive Challenge Referral Program represents a paradigm shift in talent recruitment and crowdsourced innovation by harnessing the social knowledge of the crowd to intelligently distribute every Challenge to the most capable Solvers around the world. Combined with InnoCentive Anywhere, a new cross-platform mobile app, anyone with an Android smartphone or iOS mobile device, such as an iPhone, can easily access, follow and share InnoCentive Challenges.

“Life Technologies is very excited to be participating in InnoCentive’s referral program”

2010 Top Solvers

The 2010 InnoCentive Top Solvers, representing 16 individuals from seven different countries, led the Solver community in the number of Challenges won or total winnings. Challenges solved by Top Solvers in 2010 included developing Crop Growth Simulation Models, designing Heart Implantation of a Medical Device, a Challenge for NASA to help Keep Food Fresh in Space, creating Synthetic DNA Management Software, finding Novel Approaches to Protecting Maize from Insect Damage, and Measuring and Predicting the Performance of a Research and Development Organization.

The 2010 Top Solvers included multi-year winners Yury Bodrov from Russia, Kamel El-Darwish from Finland, Eugeny Savin from Russia and Paul Wagorn from Canada. New honorees included Charlie Matlack from the USA, Patrick Steigemann from Switzerland, Sivaraman Raghu from India, Antoine Luijkx from Belgium, Grace M. Kepler from the USA, Mikhail Kusnetsov from Russia, Tad Hogg from the USA, Alex Altshuler from the USA, Chris Wilmer from the USA, Viju John Fernandez from the USA, Alexandre Zolotovitski from the USA and an anonymous Solver from the USA.

Among the 2010 Top Solvers, an honorable mention goes to Yury Bodrov from Russia. Awarded for an astonishing 12 Challenges in 2010, Yury is a scientist in the Russian Scientific Center of Applied Chemistry, where he has worked on a number of industrial projects in the field of thin organic synthesis, chemical kinetics, physical chemistry and chemical engineering. He was also recognized as a Top Solver in 2008.

A special team mention goes to the University of Washington student team – Jacqueline Linnes, Charlie Matlack, Penny Huang and Chin Jung Cheng – who designed a device to monitor water disinfection using the sun’s rays. The team received a $40,000 prize from the Rockefeller Foundation and is now working with non-profit organizations to turn their concept into a reality.

Visit the InnoCentive Top Solver page for more information.

InnoCentive Challenge Referral Program

The InnoCentive Challenge Referral Program empowers each Solver to play the role of a “Connector,” enabling them to earn awards by referring Challenges to people who they believe have the best ability to solve them. The program harnesses the social knowledge of the crowd to distribute any Challenge to its most likely Solvers. Connectors act as innovation catalysts in a world of billions of connected individuals, providing greater exposure for each Challenge and increasing the chances of a successful solution.

Life Technologies, a global biotechnology tools company, is actively using the Challenge Referral Program, setting a $10,000 referral award on their $1 million Life Grand Challenge, “Twice the Accuracy of Genome Sequencing.” In addition, almost every public InnoCentive Challenge has a referral award ranging from $500 to $10,000, allowing people to participate in the innovation process and earn awards even if they do not have the expertise to solve a given Challenge on their own.

“Life Technologies is very excited to be participating in InnoCentive’s referral program,” said Nigel Beard, Head of Scientific Operations of Life Technologies. “This program is designed to extend the reach of Challenges by tapping into the intellectual networks of the existing Solver community. Not only does this provide the potential to increase the number of active Solvers, but more importantly, it allows us to get these complex research Challenges in front of the best minds with the highest probability of solving them."

The InnoCentive Challenge Referral Program is now available for Challenges posted on InnoCentive.com.

InnoCentive Anywhere

InnoCentive Anywhere is a new mobile application for the Android and iOS mobile devices allowing Solvers, Connectors, or anyone with a modern mobile device to access, follow, and share InnoCentive Challenges. Successful Solvers are those that consistently monitor new Challenge postings. InnoCentive Anywhere provides a convenient way for them to do so, while also sharing these Challenges with their friends and social communities. InnoCentive Anywhere, along with the Challenge Referral Program, represents a major enhancement in the reach and targeting of every InnoCentive Challenge to a massive, untapped pool of global talent.

InnoCentive Anywhere is now available via the Android Market and will be available on the Apple App Store by the end of June 2011.

“I applaud our Solvers’ efforts, particularly those that took top honors in 2010. We wouldn’t be successful today if it were not for the extraordinary efforts of our Global Solver Community, which now reaches into the millions,” said Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of InnoCentive. “I’m also thrilled to announce the new enhancements to our Solver program, which will both extend the reach of our Challenges to millions of additional Solvers and improve their user experience by offering new awards for referrals and better access to Challenge information.”

For more information on InnoCentive, visit the company’s website at www.innocentive.com.

About InnoCentive

InnoCentive is the global leader of Challenge Driven Innovation that bridges the gap between great ideas and actual solutions to drive measurable results. Recognized as an open innovation and crowdsourcing pioneer, InnoCentive’s proven methodology, expanding global network of creative and passionate problem solvers, and Cloud-based technology platform enable organizations to tap all potential sources of innovation – employees, customers, partners, and InnoCentive’s unmatched Global Solver Community – to accelerate their pace of innovation and evolve toward becoming true Challenge Driven Enterprises. Leading commercial, public sector, and non-profit organizations such as Eli Lilly, Medtronic, NASA, Nature.com, Procter & Gamble, Roche, Rockefeller Foundation, and The Economist partner with InnoCentive to help them solve their most pressing problems and challenges. For more information, visit www.innocentive.com.

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