Science magazine Scientific American and InnoCentive, Inc., the global leader in open innovation, crowdsourcing, and prize competitions, have announced the launch of the Scientific American Open Innovation Pavilion, jointly hosted on www.innocentive.com/pavilion/scientific-american and www.scientificamerican.com/openinnovation. The online hub to foster scientific collaboration and open innovation is the result of a partnership between InnoCentive, Inc. and Scientific American.
The Scientific American Open Innovation Pavilion launches with four Challenges selected to appeal to problem solvers unique to both the InnoCentive and Scientific American audiences. These include: Algorithm for Matching Latent Fingerprints:
https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9932941; Design of Student-centric Websites for Open-Enrollment Colleges and Institutions: https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933168; Breakthrough Health Tech Modifications – Consumer Technology that Improves Health: https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933294; and Support Plate Replacement for Humanitarian Air Drops: https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9932740.
Commercial organisations, government agencies, and non-profits (known as 'Seekers') are able to post 'Challenges' on the Scientific American Open Innovation Pavilion. These 'Challenges' are well-articulated descriptions of scientific and technical problems that require innovative solutions. The Scientific American Open Innovation Pavilion provides these 'Seekers' with unprecedented access to a global pool of problem solvers, including InnoCentive's existing 285,000-person-strong solver network and Scientific American's audience of five million monthly visitors to ScientificAmerican.com.
The Scientific American Open Innovation pavilion marks the growth of InnoCentive's collaboration with Nature Publishing Group (NPG), Scientific American's parent organisation. In June 2009, InnoCentive and NPG launched the nature.com Open Innovation Pavilion, which is hosted on InnoCentive.com and nature.com, www.nature.com/openinnovation.
The Scientific American Open Innovation Pavilion is one of several Scientific American initiatives that center on solving real life science challenges. Since May 2011, the magazine has actively promoted citizen science projects at http://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science. In 2012, Scientific American launched the Science in Action Award, powered by the Google Science Fair, which recognises a project by young scientists that addresses a social, environmental or health issue to make a practical difference in the lives of a community.
