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Can open innovation competitions for students speed up the transfer of space technology to create sustainable solutions? At a workshop in the Swedish Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, twelve top students from Sweden and China will explore the new field of crowdsourcing ideas and innovation through competitions, in a workshop organized jointly by the Down to Earth initiative and Studentcompetitions.com.

In this workshop, the Swedish initiative Down to Earth has teamed up with the world’s largest competition website, Studentcompetitions.com to explore how open innovation competitions can be used systematically to speed up the technology transfer process between space technology and commercial sustainable solutions. Twelve students and young professionals from Sweden and China are invited to brainstorm on the theme of global open innovation competitions on September 18 at the Swedish Pavilion in the Shanghai Expo.

- Organizing global competitions is a very democratic way of solving problems: anyone with the best solution has the opportunity to participate and win, regardless of his or her background or nationality. It is an engaging and fun way to drive innovation and create tangible results more effectively, says Gustav Borgefalk, co-founder of Studentcompetitions.com.

The purpose of the workshop is to develop concepts for how the process of transferring space technology to create sustainable solutions, could be facilitated by open innovation competitions. The event will be filmed and the presentations in the workshop will be published online and live streamed by Bambuser on the Swedish Pavilion’s Website.

Open Innovation Competitions

Sourcing innovation through competitions is becoming a more and more legit practice among companies. The Ansari X-prize opened up the market for private spaceflight and web services such as Innocentive.org is continuously connecting solvers to problems which needs to be solved. Competitions are interactive, efficient and flexible processes for engaging people in solving problems, identifying excellence or promoting an issue globally.

- Crowdsourcing ideas, engagement and talent through open innovation competitions is a new, fresh way of thinking about open innovation processes. Instead of relying on the problem solving skills of a few, we engage many people through competitions, allowing them to challenge themselves to produce tangible results, says Gustav Borgefalk

Watch a live recap of the session here!

For more information and images, please contact:

Gustav Borgefalk, Co-founder
Studentcompetitions.com
+86 13811088107, +46 761929095
gustav@studentcompetitions.com

About Down to Earth

Down to Earth is a bold 10-year project ignited by the Swedish company Umbilical Design AB in partnership with Jönköping International Business School, working in collaboration with diverse industrial partners with support from the European Space Agency (ESA) Technology Transfer Program. 

About Studentcompetitions,com 

Studentcompetitons.com provides the web’s most comprehensive listing of competitions targeting students globally. The business branch of Studentcompetitions.com designs- and markets competitions and creates long-term competition strategies for companies, for recruitment, idea generation, innovation or branding purposes.