Multi-Million Dollar Prizes For Inventors

According to The Week, in an attempt to discover and deploy new technologies more quickly, a growing number of organizations are offering hefty cash prizes to inventors with breakthrough ideas. Here are five $1 million-plus innovation prizes currently up for grabs:

$1 Million For Growing Chicken In A Test Tube
In an attempt to put a halt to factory farming, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will award $1 million to the inventor of a commercially viable form in vitro chicken meat. To evaluate the entrants, 10 judges will eat a sample prepared in classic fried chicken style.

$1.4 Million For A Better Way To Sop Up Oil Slicks
In the wake of the BP disaster, the philanthropic Schmidt Family Foundation has offered $1.4 million to anyone who invents a substantially better method for recovering oil from the surface of the ocean. Tests of the submitted technologies will begin in April 2011.

$10 Million For Developing A Long-Range Car Battery
A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress earlier this year proposes a $10 million for anyone who invents an automotive battery with a 500-mile range. Facing opposition from the Big Three automakers, the measure is currently languishing in committee in the Senate.

$20 Million For Putting A Robot On The Moon
Google and the X Prize Foundation have offered a grand prize of $20 million to any team that can successfully land a robot on the moon, “travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send images and data back to the Earth.” The deadline for sign-up is December 31, 2010 and the deadline for completing the task is December 31, 2012.

$25 Million For A Technology Capable Of Cooling The Climate
In 2007, Sir Richard Branson and Al Gore launched the Virgin Earth Challenge, which promises $25 million to the first team to invent a commercially-viable way to remove significant amounts of carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere. The winning system must be capable of removing at least a billion metric tons of CO2 per year, for 10 consecutive years.

Photo by theman2010.

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