Innocentive Model

Innocentive helps companies facing an R&D problem that they cannot solve by themselves. Through innocentive.com they can use the widest worldwide network of scientists to solve their R&D issue by posting their R&D Challenge on Innocentive's website and by proposing an appropriate award. InnoCentive's Solvers submit solutions to the Challenge. A commission checks the validity of the solution, only the best solution is awarded. The Seeker pays an award to the winning Solver only if the Challenge is solved. Identities of both parties are kept confidential until the collaboration is accepted and award paid; Innocentive bills the seeker for that amount plus its fee. An indemnity agreement is obtained from the solver to protect both the seeker and InnoCentive.

In 2001, InnoCentive was begun by Eli Lilly in order to connect the global biochemistry scientist community to R&D challenges facing leading companies rewarding scientific innovation through financial incentives. Innocentive wants to innovate the way to innovate: by using the global and worldwide network of the web, it creates a global knowledge economy.
Benefits for customers, “seekers”
Customers are whether pharmaceutical companies (as was the first company to use this website as a seeker) , consumer goods companies or non profit organizations.
Companies such as P&G can spend billions of dollars in R&D. The model helps seekers in increasing their productivity, lowering costs and providing better solutions faster.

Benefits for customers, “solvers”
Scientists have access to bankable issues. A recent challenge posted by Price 4 live, a non-profit organization, promised an award of 1 Million dollars.
Intellectual property is protected: when a solution or innovation is found, the scientist, by taking on the reward, agrees to deliver his property rights.

Benefit for Innocentive
Beyond fees that are systematically billed when a solution is found and a solver rewarded, Innocentive has developed a highly valuable scientists database. More than 110000 solver scientists in over than 175 countries are connected to Innocentive network. This kind of information is a big asset.



This kind of business can have a lot of application:
- Databases can be sold to a lot of entities such as pharmaceutical companies or as government who often need to identify best scientists all over the word in order to hire them.
- The model can be extended to non scientific innovation. Companies always need innovation, in a Marketing point of view, in a communication point of view, etc. Innocentive can be the new platform for companies as P&G or Microsoft to find very disruptive innovation, using worldwide imagination and avoiding barriers of marketing rules without taking any risk in time spare and budget. The new product proposed can also be a service, and even the marketing mix can be proposed with. If the idea is good, and disruptive it can be tested on a panel and the company only pays the award if it works.
- We could also imagine that investment funds propose awards to best business plans in order to help people with great project plan to launch their business. In return, the award payer will get some shares in the new business.