Words by Daniel Simons

Competitions are magnets for change. Firstly, and most importantly, they change the public perception about what’s possible. They also incentivise risk takers to push boundaries, motivate global investment, and result in enormous amounts of press - often for projects or solutions that may otherwise not receive much coverage. A well designed competition can also lead to a raft of new and innovative ideas and give rise to entire industries and ecosystems - before and after the prize goal has been achieved.

In July 1969, after watching the Apollo 11 moon landing, Peter Diamandis knew he wanted to be an astronaut. It was a dream that would consume him for decades, leading him to study physics and medicine and even found a national student space club.

Peter dreamed of flying beyond Earth, but as the years dragged on, he became frustrated with the pace of innovation. It seemed like he would never reach the stars.

In 1994, after reading about how a $25,000 prize from Raymond Orteig inspired Charles Lindbergh to create the first-ever plane to fly the 3,600 miles across the Atlantic, Peter came up with an idea that would change the world.

The competition that led to that first Atlantic flight in 1927, inspired Peter to launch a $10 million dollar prize to incentivise a new generation of private passenger-carry space ships.

When Peter launched the $10 million prize in 1996 he did not have the funds secured, and for a long time it looked like he wouldn't be able to raise the full amount. For someone announcing a $10 million prize for space travel when they didn’t have the funds, the philosophy of ‘build the plane on the way down’ couldn’t be more apt.

The purse was eventually funded through a donation by Anousheh and Hamid Ansri and it was renamed the Ansari X-Prize.

The slogan on the current X-Prize website reads, ‘The day before something is truly a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea.’ The insight applies equally to Peter’s belief in the X-Prize, as well as every one of the competition's winners.

The X-Prize for the first privately financed team that could build and fly a three-passenger vehicle 100 kilometres into space twice within two weeks, motivated 26 teams from seven nations to invest more than $100 million in pursuit of the $10 million prize.

It was eventually won in October 2004 —a decade after the prize was first announced —-by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, who successfully completed the contest in their spacecraft SpaceShipOne, vindicating Peter’s ‘crazy idea,’ and moving humanity one step closer to the stars.

The claiming of the prize also resulted in over 5.5 billion media impressions, proving just how impactful a bold vision can be.

Peter is known for his contagious audacity, and his abundance mindset. As well as having degrees in biology and aeronautics and astronautics from MIT, and a Medical Degree from Harvard, he is also a New York Times best-selling author and Co-Founder of over 20 companies, including: Singularity University, Planetary Resources, Human Longevity Inc. and BOLD Capital Partners, a venture fund with over $250 million invested in exponential technologies.

He’s even taken Dr. Steven Hawking on a zero gravity flight via one of his space-focused companies.

Peter was named by Fortune Magazine as one of the ‘World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,’ so when he shares his thoughts on how competitions can accelerate innovation and help us solve our most pressing challenges, we should probably take note.

According to Peter competitions are magnets for change. Firstly, and most importantly, they change the public perception about what’s possible. They also incentivise risk takers to push boundaries, motivate global investment, and result in enormous amounts of press —often for projects or solutions that may otherwise not receive much coverage.

A well designed competition can also lead to a raft of new and innovative ideas and give rise to entire industries and ecosystems before and after the prize goal has been achieved.

Space travel might be a dream for some, but there is a long list of earthly challenges in search of audacious solutions. Here is a list of some of the largest competitions on the planet dedicated to supporting crazy ideas and breakthrough technologies, and catalysing innovation on a global scale:

X-Prize

After starting as a $10 million prize to motivate civilian space travel, the X-Prize has evolved and there are now a huge range of X-Prizes on offer— most of which are funded by large corporations or philanthropists. The prizes cover the domains of biodiversity and conservation, climate and energy, deep tech, health, food, water and waste, learning and society and space exploration.

One of the largest open competitions is the Elon Musk-backed $100 million dollar X-Prize for Carbon Removal. They also have a $10 million dollar prize for enhancing our understanding of rainforest ecosystems, a $15 million dollar prize for chicken or fish alternatives. There are prizes for using AI and data for the benefit of humanity, and they are soon to launch an $11 million prize for technologies that will end destructive wildfires.

The X-Prize Foundation’s board of trustees includes: James Cameron, Larry Page, Arianna Huffington, Ratan Tata and other equally impressive humans.

In addition to the large X-Prizes, the Foundation is also exploring the idea of smaller prizes dubbed ‘MyXPrizes,’ where they will look to award $10,000 to $1 million towards projects that target local problems.

Earthshot Prize

The Royal Foundation’s Earthshot Prize was created by Prince William to fund projects that aim to find and grow the solutions that will repair our planet this decade. The prize is supported by a Global Alliance of founding partners including the Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Breakthrough Energy and Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth, as well as charity partners including Greenpeace, WWF, Conservation International and C40 cities.

The name ‘Earthshot’ was chosen in reference to the ‘Moonshot’ ambitions of the 1960s, where President John F Kenned pledged to get a man on the Moon within a decade.

The Earthshot Prize has 5 categories, including protecting and restoring nature, cleaning our air, reviving our oceans, building a waste-free world, and fixing our climate. It will offer a 1 million pound prize for each category until the year 2030.

Trustees of the Earthshot Prize include ex NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, former UN Climate Chief Christiana Figueres, Lawyer David Fein and the CEO of Conservation International, Dr. M Sanjayan.

Judges of the prize have included Prince Willam, Sir David Attenborough, Cate Blanchett and singer Shakira.

Some of the most exciting winners of the Earthshot prize include: Mukuru Clean Stoves, a Kenyan business that produces stoves that are fueled by biomass made from charcoal, wood and sugarcane instead of polluting fuels, Notpla, a waste-free biodegradable plastic made from seaweed, 44,01, a project that turns carbon dioxide into rocks and Enapter, a technology company that developed an innovative method for turning renewable electricity into emission-free hydrogen gas.

Australia’s Indigenous Women of The Great Barrier Reef also took out the 2022 prize for reviving our oceans.

It is not just startups that can win the Earthshot prize. In 2021 The Republic of Costa Rica won the ‘Restoring Nature’ prize for their great work on protecting and restoring rainforests and protecting biodiversity in regional and urban areas.

AndThe City of Milan won the ‘waste-free-world’ category for their Food Waste Hubs that take excess food from supermarkets and distribute it to NGOs and charities to distribute it to people in need.

In 2022, the Earthshot Prize also launched a 9 month fellowship in partnership with IDEO aimed at helping all Finalists supercharge their growth.

MIT Solve

MIT Solve’s Global Challenges seek social entrepreneurs who are using technology to solve today’s most pressing problems.

Those selected to become part of a Solver team get to join their nine-month support program, receive access to over $1 million in funding, grants, and investments, join a powerful network of impact-minded leaders, and receive coaching and strategic advice from experts.

Solve was launched in 2015 and has, so far, catalysed over $60 million in commitments for Solver teams.

Solve runs a number of challenges every year. In 2023 their challenges are: Financial Inclusion, Climate Adaptation and Low Carbon Housing, Learning for Civic Action and Health in Fragile Contexts. They also run an Indigenous Community Fellowship for Indigenous Innovators from the USA or Canada.

Solve also has a fantastic ‘Solve Map’ where you can explore the work of over 250 Solver teams who are tackling global challenges.

The Elevate Prize

The Elevate Prize is on a mission to ‘make good famous.’

Founded in 2019, the Elevate Prize is a global not for profit that empowers social entrepreneurs and activists by providing them with the funding and resources they need to amplify their impact.

They offer three prizes annually, including a $300,000 Elevate Prize, a $250,000 Catalyst Award, and a $10,000 Get Loud Award.

Some previous winners of the Elevate prizes include the Trevor Noah Foundation and the Amal and George Clooney Foundation for Justice.

Kaggle

Kaggle isn’t one competition, it's a platform for data scientists—but it also runs an enormous range of competitions with prizes ranging from the tens of thousands of dollars to millions.

There is a vast spectrum of competitions on the platform, ranging from the highly ambitious to the super arcane and esoteric.

Current competitions that are live on the platform include: a competition to resurrect an ancient library from the ashes of a volcano, a competition for creating software to identify bird calls in soundscapes, and a competition for finding breast cancer screenings in mammograms.

Some of the climate competitions have included: the $90,000 City-Business Collaboration for a Sustainable Future, the iWildCam competition for biodiversity monitoring, and the Herbarium competition for harnessing the power of AI for botanical applications.