In January, we announced that we would be working with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to pilot the Inventor Prize. Today we’re launching a public consultation to help us refine the prize design through a better understanding of the support inventors need.

The Inventor Prize, which opens for entries later this summer, is a challenge prize pilot that aims to inspire and harness the potential of the UK’s home-grown inventors. Helping lone inventors and small companies to get their innovative new products out of the - literal or proverbial - shed and into the market.

At its simplest, inventing is problem solving. It’s working out how to improve existing solutions or coming up with something new that could fill a gap no one else has seen. But coming up with an idea is only part of the journey.

The Inventor Prize aims to help lone inventors and small companies overcome the barriers they face as they try to develop their product and get it into the market. We want to understand how we can use the Inventor Prize to support great ideas like comp-a-tent, Sugru or Nimble. Innovative products that are great to use and help tackle societal issues like reducing landfill waste or supporting older people to live independently for longer.

During our month-long consultation, we’ll be running a survey, interviews and a design workshop. We’re aiming to talk to inventors, experts and the public to find out how we can shape the prize so that it can achieve its aim of helping inventors. We don’t want to just assume we know what inventors need, we want to hear from you as well.

Please note: the workshop took place on 10 July and the survey is now closed.

This blog post was originally published on the Inventor Prize website. Read the original post.