Challenge Seeks Better Insecticide Performance Test Methods

A new challenge on InnoCentive is looking for new methods or processes for tracking the interactions between insecticides and the pests they aim to kill. The competition has a total purse of $10,000 and a deadline of 18 November 2013 for proposals (free registration required).

InnoCentive in Waltham, Massachusetts conducts open-innovation, crowd-sourcing competitions for corporate and organization sponsors. The sponsor of this competition, however, is not disclosed. InnoCentive calls this kind of competition an ideation challenge that requires a written proposal typically of about two pages.

This challenge seeks better ways of gauging the interactions of an insect’s bodily functions with contact-active insecticide compounds, those applied directly to the surface of the pest. The sponsor is particularly interested in more effective ways of measuring (1) amounts of insecticide picked up and present on the insect target, (2) quantities of insecticide ingested by the insect, and (3) amount of time needed for the insect to clear the insecticide.

Proposed solutions may address one or a combination of these processes. Participants may propose experimental methods, computational or theoretical modeling, or a combination of the two approaches.

Ideation challenges, says InnoCentive, are used to generate new ideas, something like an extended brain-storming session to find a breakthrough solution. Participants in an ideation challenge may submit to the competition ideas of their own, ideas from others to which the contestants have rights to submit and authority to convey to the sponsor, or ideas in the public domain with no restrictions. Confidential information should not be revealed in proposals.

The total purse for the challenge is $10,000 with at least one award no smaller than $5,000 and no individual awards any less than $1,000. The sponsor will review the entries and notify participants of the status of their proposals.

By participating in the challenge, contestants are granting to the sponsor a royalty-free, perpetual, and non-exclusive license to use any information included in their proposals.

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• Research on Insects Leads to Forestry Biochemical Start-Up

Photo: Germán Meyer/Flickr

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