{"id":27437,"date":"2015-07-24T16:59:54","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T20:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=27437"},"modified":"2016-06-11T12:27:54","modified_gmt":"2016-06-11T16:27:54","slug":"global-threat-identification-methods-sought-in-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=27437","title":{"rendered":"Global Threat Identification Methods Sought in Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Drought<\/a>
(Oxfam East Africa, Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

24 July 2015. A new challenge on InnoCentive is seeking techniques for identifying climatic events in one region that have direct or indirect impacts elsewhere in the world. The competition<\/a> has a total purse of $30,000 and deadline for submissions of 17 September 2015.<\/p>\n

InnoCentive in Waltham, Massachusetts conducts open-innovation, crowdsourcing competitions for corporate and organization sponsors. The sponsor in this case is the Skoll Global Threats Fund<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>Free registration<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>is required to see details of the competition.<\/p>\n

The challenge<\/a> is seeking methods for policy makers, public health authorities, and emergency planners to identify and measure potential consequences of events triggered by climate change — e.g., flood or drought — and other natural disasters, resulting from the growing interconnected nature of modern life. Skoll Global Threats Fund believes these threats are non-linear, cannot be solved by any one country, require some sort of collective action, and only become much more difficult to manage if not addressed soon.<\/p>\n

The consequences of climatic events have the potential to cause significant economic and social dislocations and paralysis, including widespread injuries and deaths. Among the projected impacts are large-scale human migration, infectious disease epidemics, food shortages, and social unrest.<\/p>\n

Skoll Global Threats Fund is seeking answers to the question, “What are the ways in which we can identify early indications and\/or patterns of complex events that can have triggering effects elsewhere in the world?” Solutions should encompass near-real-time monitoring and provide methods for triggering alerts when threats are identified. The sponsor expects solutions will contribute to the emerging disciplines of big data and forecasting.<\/p>\n

InnoCentive calls this type of competition an ideation challenge, which requires a brief (two-page) proposal. Ideation proposals can contain ideas originating from the participants, ideas from the public domain where no restrictions are applied, or ideas from third-parties where participants have the rights to propose solutions with those ideas. Participants are asked not to submit confidential information in their proposals.<\/p>\n

The competition has a total award purse of $30,000 with at least one award no smaller than $10,000 and no awards less than $2,000. The sponsor also indicates that submitting a proposal grants the sponsor a non-exclusive, perpetual, and royalty-free license to use any information in the proposal, including for promotional purposes. An exclusive transfer of intellectual property rights to the sponsor, however, is not required.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n