ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Innovation Foundation (PIF) and Indus Motor Company (IMC) has announced the launch of National Innovation Grand Challenge (NICG) 2013-14,with objective to solve challenges of the country in areas including agriculture, energy, rural development, and manufacturing.
A year-long `Open Innovation' competition, NIGC encourages Pakistani innovators, youth, students, professionals, entrepreneurs and citizens to innovate for solving country's problems.
"The challenge invites creative minds from all over Pakistan to come up with unique and innovative ideas in two critical domains", official sources told.
He said the first challenge is to develop a replicable, scalable and marketable product or process that enhances productivity, reduces energy requirement or reduces industrial waste by at least 33 percent.
The second challenge is to develop an innovative product, service, or tool that complements or enhances the utility of a manufactured product and has a compelling market potential and cost-performance profile for rapid commercialization in Pakistan.
The winners shall bag Rs1,000,000 (1 Million) `Open Innovation' Prize and Rs500,000 (0.5 Million) Dedicated Student Prize.
The announcement was made by the Senior Leadership PIF and Toyota Pakistan which is founding corporate member of the Foundation.
"The Corporate sector has a special role to play in innovation,many of them have systems and processes in place to drive innovation internally.so they can help us in driving innovation projects across Pakistan", said Chairman PIF Saad Amanullah Khan.
Faisal Muneeb Khan, Senior General Manager , Indus Motor Company, said "There is paramount need to grow our local industry and nurture human capital in order to develop our economy.
Patterned after the famous X-Prize and Grand Challenges in Health, Toyota Manufacturing Innovation Challenge builds upon Toyota's stewardship of the manufacturing industry and the tremendous talent that Pakistan has within its youth and young professionals as demonstrated in competitions such as Shell Eco-Marathon, Microsoft Imagine Cup, and International Science Olympiads.
The Competition is Open now and those seeking to compete can register on PIF's website (http://www.pif.org.pk/NIGC-2013).
The contestants shall go through a 10 month long process in three distinct stages of Design, Prototype, and Demonstration Phases that will end in July 2014.
Contestants will receive guidance, mentoring, and training throughout the process that will end in the announcement of finalists. The winners shall be announced in August 2014 at a National Conference and Innovation Showcase.
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