The X PRIZE Foundation is generating innovative breakthroughs in new and exciting areas and plans to launch a ten new prizes over the next five years with a combined purse amount of approximately $100 million. New prizes will focus on pushing the limits of what is currently possible and accelerating the rate of positive change, all for the benefit of humanity. In order to meet that goal, the X PRIZE Foundation has a dedicated Prize Development staff who will continue to build competitions that capture the public imagination and inspire results.

Prize Areas

The Prize Development Process

Prize development typically takes 8-14 months for each potential competition, concluding with a final report with a plan of action for donors and category sponsors. The creative process includes a series of sessions between leading experts resulting in ideas that are presented to the X PRIZE Foundation Board of Trustees and potential purse sponsors.

In order to ensure that final prize ideas are properly defined, the process also includes a series of meetings in which fundamental concepts are debated and experts are challenged to “game” rules.

X PRIZEs are guided by the following principals:

We create prizes that result in innovation that makes a lasting impact. Although a technological breakthrough can meet this criterion, so do prizes which inspire teams to use existing technologies, knowledge or systems in more effective ways.

Prizes are designed to generate popular interest through the prize lifecycle: enrollment, competition, attempts (both successful and unsuccessful) and post- completion.

Enrollment phase: In this stage, the world is introduced to the players. Prizes ideally encourage a wide range of people to participate from leading thinkers in relevant fields to maverick inventors and entrepreneurs.

Competition phase: In this stage, the world watches as teams work toward winning the prize.

Attempts: In this stage, attempts equal events that attract media attention and generate suspense.

Post-Win: Retrospectively, competitions will be regarded as landmark events that revolutionized an industry or that open up new markets.

Prizes result in financial leverage. For a prize to be successful, it should generate outside investment from competitors at least 5-10 times the prize purse size. The greater the leverage, the better return on investment for our prize donors and partners.

Prizes incorporate both elements of technological innovation as well as successful “real world” deployment. An invention which is too costly or too inconvenient to deploy widely will not win a prize.

Prizes engage multidisciplinary innovators which would otherwise be unlikely to tackle the problems that the prize is designed to address.

If you have a prize idea that you think fits into the mold of an X PRIZE, you can submit your idea here! Our Prize Development staff will review your concepts and if they need more information, will get in contact with you.