Open to US permanent residents and citizens 18 years or older. Prize: $3000 + up to $2000 transportation to a Washington DC meeting in February 24-26, 2013. Submission Deadline: November 12, 2012 Wanted: 4000 character description of an "audacious goal" in vision research or blindness rehabilitation.
Intro from the competition website:
"The National Eye Institute is embarking on a new venture to expand and enhance its strategic planning effort. Success will require engaging a large number of creative and innovative individuals who can contribute novel and far-reaching ideas.
"NEI is looking for bold ideas from vision researchers, the greater science community, and the public that support the NEI mission—"to conduct and support research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to blinding eye diseases, visual disorders, mechanisms of visual function, preservation of sight, and the special health problems and requirements of the blind."
"The Challenge solicits original and inventive approaches from academia, industry, the nonprofit sector, and the general public. We encourage you to participate by submitting an "audacious" goal."-- jutta, Oct 24 2012 How to enter http://www.nei.nih....enge/howtoenter.asp [jutta, Oct 24 2012] Accessibility Hackathon 1 http://www.wikimedi...ssibility_hackathon [JesusHChrist, Oct 25 2012] “Make people not blind”?
Seriously, what the hell is this? They're so short of ideas and have so much extra in the budget that they're running a contest to solicit (pie in the sky) ideas from the unwashed masses? Isn't it their job to come up with these ideas on their own? Your tax dollars at work, I guess.
Here's an audacious idea for them: “Disband the National Eye Institute”.-- ytk, Oct 24 2012 A good cause, but unfortunately one among thousands. It begs the question: how do they expect to draw viable solutions from those not already working in the field? Things like the X- or N-Prize I can understand, but curing blindness is not rocket science. For one thing, it's a hell of a lot more field-specific and academic, and I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be more expensive.-- Alterother, Oct 24 2012 I'll probably catch hell for that rocket science thing...-- Alterother, Oct 24 2012 //Open to US permanent residents and citizens 18 years or older// Because everyone knows that foreigners can't invent anything!-- pocmloc, Oct 24 2012 //it's a hell of a lot more field-specific and academic// To me, it looks like they are interested in technological aids for the blind, rather than just the prevention or treatment of blindness. Seeing eye bees, braille radio, that kind of thing. [EDIT - ah, I just read the full thing. I take it back. It does seem to be asking for biomedical research proposals, and is a bit weird.]
// Because everyone knows that foreigners can't invent anything!// I think it's more that the US organisation wants to fund US research, which seems fair to me. Most countries put most of their research funding inside their own borders.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 24 2012 Incidentally, is it open only to people who are citizens AND residents? (I'm a half-citizen, but non- resident.)-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 24 2012 You're either a U.S. citizen or you're not. If you are, you're good. Even if you're not, you can still submit an idea, and if your idea is selected they'll invite you to present it and reimburse you up to $2,000 in travel expenses. You just can't win the prize.-- ytk, Oct 24 2012 "Up to 20 winners will each be awarded a $3,000 prize and up to $2,000 in travel reimbursement"
So a maximum of $100,000 K USD.
From the web:
"Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
I am pleased to present the President’s budget request for the National Eye Institute (NEI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 NEI budget of $693,015,000 includes a decrease of $8,861,000 from the comparable FY 2012 level of $701,876,000. As the director of the NEI, it is my privilege to report on the many research opportunities that exist to reduce the burden of eye disease."
So not that big a percentage of the budget - probably took it out of the officer's pizza fund.-- normzone, Oct 24 2012 Maybe require some sort of caps for those sharp sticks that one waves about?
This looks like the innocentive challenges, but lower prize $.-- bungston, Oct 24 2012 //So not that big a percentage of the budget//
You don't think $100,000 (plus the overhead for running the contest, hosting the presentation, and so on) is a lot of money?
It may not be the most egregious example of government waste, but it's still galling.-- ytk, Oct 24 2012 I just saw a talk at a conference describing how researchers "cured" color blindness in some monkeys by injecting a virus carrying some kind of genetic material into the monkey's eyes. He said he didn't know what the monkeys thought about this, but they did start to see three instead of only two colors.-- sqeaketh the wheel, Oct 25 2012 random, halfbakery