Singapore is looking to ramp up its innovation efforts and therefore will soon be launching the Open Innovation Platform, a virtual crowdsourcing platform that aims to foster innovative ideas and narrow the gap between research and commercialization.
The platform will give companies better access to opportunities and will be rolled out under the auspices of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). This is a statutory board of the government of Singapore.
Open Innovation Goals
This ambitious and exciting open innovation project was unveiled by Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat in his delivery of the 2018 Budget 2018 and there are a number of goals it wants to achieve. They include:
Allowing Singapore-based companies to improve their digitalization endeavors by providing access to technology and multi-disciplinary expertise.
Catalyzing innovation by developing a community of problem owners (such as trade associations, SMEs and Singapore-based companies) and solvers.
Innovative Solutions Wanted
Problem owners will be able to propose challenges at any stage of innovation. For example:
Ideation – new ideas to solve a particular problem or challenge
Proof-of-concept – where problem owners seek to demonstrate the technical viability of a proposed solution
Prototyping – the demonstration of a working prototype
Financial rewards will be offered to successful solvers and the amount will be determined by the problem owners.
Getting Ready for Platform Launch
It is expected that The Open innovation Platform will launch during the middle of this year with its first challenge call. To date, more than 20 organizations have signed up to take part.