Siemens launches Smart Grid Innovation Idea Contest

It seems crowdsourcing is the game of the day. Companies after companies are using innovative approach to tap the crowd wisdom. After GE's $300 million successful contest, the multinational conglomerate Siemens is following the suit to tap the crowd wisdom. it has recently launched Smart Grid Innovation Contest, where anybody can submit ideas relevant to Smart Grid, the contest is accepting idea till 31st May,2011. It has two categories, the first category is about ideas, which will receive prizes worth euro 15 000 in total. The second category is about university proposal, which will be awarded euro 1 million for grants and research. The interesting aspect of the contest is that not only idea contributors, but the valuable comments contributor will  also receive award.

Details of Award

• Prizes for the 5 best ideas in the Idea Contest (awarded after the end of Phase 1 in July 2011)
• Prizes for the 3 best contributors to the Idea Contest (awarded after the end of Phase 1 in July 2011)
• Prizes for the 10 best university proposals in the Call-for-Proposals (awarded after the end of Phase 2 in January 2012)

Siemens has identified seven core smart grid domain viz. Demand Response, Electro-Mobility, Energy Brokering, Energy Sinks & Energy Storage, Micro-Grid, Virtual Power Plant for the contest. Besides this, other categories covers all the remaining aspects of Smart Grid. The first phase of the contest winner will be decided on 27th July and they will be invited to Berlin for the ceremony. The second phase, which starts on 2th October, 2011 and is focused towards university research will be awarded 1 million euro award in January 2012. So far, the contest has received 153 ideas from 575 members with demand response garnering maximum attention.

Timeline

 Siemens Smart Grid Contest Website : http://www.smartgridcontest.com