Challenges

Challenges are an open innovation approach, meaning that they are designed to crowd-in innovative ideas and solutions from a wide variety of actors and sources to expand the Government’s problem-solving abilities.

Challenges are designed to have a “look and feel” that is different from the types of funding programs that governments and their stakeholders are accustomed to running and participating in.

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What's a challenge?

  • What's a challenge? (Transcript)

    At Impact Canada, we use Challenges to reward the best solutions to some of Canada’s biggest problems.

    By offering incentives, more innovators are encouraged to participate in the problem solving process.

    This helps us to more rapidly achieve outcomes that matter to Canadians.

    Running a challenge also helps to: draw attention to an issue area, attract and develop talent, AND build new partnerships & networks.

    So far, we’ve launched over 12 challenges and initiatives with our partners, including:

    An opioid Drug Checking Technology Challenge, offering $1.75M in prizes for an accurate and accessible drug checking device,

    A Smart Cities Grand Challenge offering $300M to improve the lives of Canadians using data and connected technology, AND

    A $1M Accelerator to help women cleantech entrepreneurs advance their breakthrough ideas and grow their businesses.

    Learn more about some exciting new solutions at impact.canada.ca

What is a challenge?

Challenges are meant to attract new talent and new ideas from a wide variety of actors, and accelerate progress towards solving problems and achieving stronger social, environmental, and economic outcomes for citizens.

They provide incentives (both financial and non-financial) to encourage a broad range of innovators to tackle problems where solutions are not apparent, or current responses are not achieving the desired results. Incentives are typically structured through a stage-gated approach, where challenge participants receive incentives at different stages of the challenge.

Challenges can act as “pull mechanisms”, where a sponsoring organization, such as government, identifies a problem, publicizes the criteria, and awards innovators if and when they can measurably improve on a given outcome that the sponsoring organization is looking to achieve.

Why run a Challenge?

Challenges aim to solve big problems, accelerate progress towards ambitious goals, and have a history of producing major breakthroughs in human knowledge and practice. They do this by shining a powerful light on an issue or opportunity and providing an incentive for innovators to prioritize the challenge goal.

Challenges have a set of inherent features meant to attract new talent and new ideas, and accelerate progress towards solving problems that matter to people. In terms of public policy benefits, challenges can:

  • Provide a targeted mechanism to shine a powerful spotlight on important public policy issues and enhance public awareness;
  • Open up problem-solving by creating opportunities for government to attract and collaborate with nontraditional stakeholders and innovators in the private, academic, and not-for-profit sectors to pursue solutions of mutual interest using streamlined processes;
  • Unlock strategic investments in areas where no natural incentive for innovation yet exists or where the risk of private investment prohibits a solution from being developed;
  • Develop a pipeline of new innovations (e.g. programs, services, technologies, products) that can help address complex policy challenges and/or fill important market gaps with tangible impact; and
  • Introduce an outcomes-based orientation to government programming by linking payments to progress and achievement, as opposed to paying only for expenditures and activities

Types of challenges

There are three basic types of challenges used to tackle a wide variety of problems from different starting points.

Challenge prizes

Offer an outcomes-based funding award to whomever can first or most effectively meet a defined challenge or solve a specific problem according to a set of verifiable and pre-determined criteria.

Grand Challenges

Use open and thematic competitions to fund a broad range of potential innovations on a prospective basis and focus on rigorous evaluations of effectiveness.

Accelerators

Provide intensive and time-limited business support for cohorts of early stage enterprises (e.g. start-ups)

Our approach: The challenge design process

The development and delivery of Challenges tend to follow five key phases. These phases may be highly customized depending on particular contexts and the needs of our partners.

1 Understand

  • Identify and define the specific problem that the challenge will seek to address
  • Select a policy priority; conduct discovery research; undertake stakeholder identification and engagement; and establish problem identification and definition

2 Design

  • Ideate design parameters that will support the most effective delivery of a challenge
  • Present the challenge statement and develop the structure of the challenge, including timelines
  • Draft challenge criteria, prize incentives and evaluation framework

3 Test

  • Validate the design elements previously developed to achieve a challenge design that is likely to deliver on the objectives

4 Implement

  • Launch Challenge
  • Provide participants with support through the applications process
  • Assessment of applications by a jury
  • Select semi-finalists, finalists and winner(s)

5 Evaluate & scale

  • Conduct a horizontal impact assessment of the challenges using quantitative and qualitative data
  • Prepare plans for scaling and support execution

Get in touch

To learn more or explore working with us on Challenges, please contact Julie Greene, Senior Lead, Capacity and Partnerships, by email at Julie.Greene@pco-bcp.gc.ca.

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