Nominations Open for Inventer Prize in UK!

Deadline: 22 October 2017

Nominations are open for Inventer Prize with an aim to help smaller inventors overcome the barriers they face. This Prize is run by Nesta and funded by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).The prize wants to support individuals, teams or companies that would likely struggle to otherwise access resources and support.

The prize will seek to:

Support the development of selected products
Build the capacity of prize participants (inventors)
Champion and raise the profile of the lone or small scale inventor

Themes

Financial Inclusion: Many people lack access to appropriate financial services, or simply lack the financial and digital knowledge in order to manage their money effectively.
Mental Health: Mental health issues are prevalent in society, too many people suffer from stress, anxiety and depression and struggle to manage their mental health.
Ageing: Everybody ages, and the UK population is no exception. As people age, they come with both an increasing contribution to society, as well as number of challenges.
Air Quality: Poor air quality is one of the most serious public health risks facing us today.

Prize information

£50,000 will be awarded to the finalist that best demonstrate meeting the judging criteria. There will be two runner up prizes of £5,000 and £15,000 for two most promising products.

Eligibility Criteria

People in the UK – They are looking for entries from individual inventors, small teams and small companies, based or residing in the UK.
New ideas for products – They are looking for physical and digital products that are new and not currently on the market or available commercially. To be eligible, entrants will have to have a working model of their product that demonstrates what the product is able to do.
Co-creation – It is important that the development of the idea is co-created with its intended users during the prize.
Skills -Entrants must ensure that they have the capacity, or can have a realistic plan for how to develop or acquire the capacity, they need to develop their product during the prize.
Willingness to share the idea (Intellectual Property remains with entrant) – Entrants must be the creator of the product they are entering or have permission to enter it as a representative of the small business or group who created the product.
Prize funding – Prize funding will only be awarded for projects that have an identifiable public benefit.
Politics – They cannot fund activity which is party-political in intention, use, or presentation nor to support or promote religious activity.