InnoCentive and NESTA Launch Challenge Seeking Innovative Solutions to Increase Parental Involvement in Young People’s Learning

InnoCentive is now part of Wazoku

WALTHAM, Mass. – June 14, 2010 – InnoCentive, Inc., the world leader in open innovation, today announced it has issued a Challenge with the United Kingdom’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), seeking innovative solutions to increase parental involvement in young people’s learning. The Challenge is looking for imaginative solutions that go beyond traditional activities like choosing a school, taking part in school advisory boards or through events such as parents’ evenings. The Challenge is open to participants from any discipline or background, and runs until June 28, 2010. After a review of all submissions, the winning solution will be published and available for real-world implementation.

Michael Harris, Director of Public and Social Innovation at NESTA, said, “By casting the net wide and tapping into InnoCentive’s extensive Solver network, our aim is to unlock a broad range of effective approaches to parental engagement which can be tested and put into practice. While the Challenge model is commonplace in the private sector, it is less tried and tested in tackling social issues and we are anticipating imaginative results.”

“It’s wonderful to see an organization like NESTA take such an active role in finding new ways to generate solutions to complex social issues,” said Dwayne Spradlin, InnoCentive CEO. “I believe this Challenge will personally resonate with many of our Solvers and, with their diverse backgrounds, I expect that there will be some very innovative solutions proposed.”

Parental involvement in their children’s learning can be a positive driver in young people’s educational engagement and achievement. As parents can contribute to the crucial learning which takes place outside of the classroom, so NESTA will use the winning solution to develop a new program which helps educators engage parents in taking an active, innovative role in their child’s educational development. The solution will be made available to the public so that education systems worldwide can adapt the solution for their use.

Since 1997, NESTA has supported innovation in education throughout the U.K. Its idiscover education program uses innovative tools to engage and motivate school-age children to broaden their educational horizons and develop innovation skills and aptitudes that can be applied throughout their lifetime.

About InnoCentive, Inc.

Since 2001, InnoCentive has helped corporate, government, and non-profit organizations to better innovate through crowdsourcing, strategic consulting services and internal Software-as-a-Service offerings.  The company built the first global Web community for open innovation where organizations or “Seekers” submit complex problems or “Challenges” for resolution to a “Solver” community of more than 200,000 engineers, scientists, inventors, business professionals, and research organizations in more than 200 countries. Prizes for winning solutions are financial awards up to US $1,000,000.  Committed to unleashing diverse thinking, InnoCentive continues to introduce new products and services exemplifying a new corporate model where return to investors and individual passion go hand in hand with solving mankind’s most pressing problems. https://www.innocentive.com/

About NESTA

NESTA is the largest independent endowment in the UK. Its mission is to support innovation to drive economic recovery and solve some of the UK’s major social challenges.

NESTA is a world leader in its field and is in a unique position to support and promote innovation through a blend of practical programmes, policy and research and investment in early-stage companies. www.nesta.org.uk

For more information contact:

Karyn Martin
Emerge PR for InnoCentive
kmartin@emergepr.com
617-729-3173

Connie French
InnoCentive Marketing Director
press@innocentive.com