Multi-million Dollar Oil Spill Cleanup X PRIZE Announced at TEDxOilSpill

We are pleased to announce that the X PRIZE Foundation is preparing to launch a multi-million dollar prize directed at cleanup efforts in the Gulf as a way to incentivize immediate privately-funded innovation and action. The announcement was made at TEDxOilSpill on Monday, June 28 by X PRIZE vice president Francis Beland and senior advisor Dave Gallo.

The X PRIZE has been incredibly successful at attracting the attention of the world’s top thinkers to our most pressing problems, and the oil spill in the Gulf certainly qualifies. The X PRIZE is viewed as the leading model to leverage the elements of public interest, entrepreneurial spirit and cross-disciplinary innovation to bring about breakthroughs that benefit us all.

So far, there have been four X PRIZE challenges: the Ansari X PRIZE for manned spaceflight, the Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, the Google Lunar X PRIZE, and the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE. The Ansari X PRIZE was won in 2004 and led to the creation of Virgin Galactic, which expects to make its first commercial sub-orbital flight into space in 2011.

An Oil Spill X PRIZE will represent only the fifth X PRIZE ever to be offered, and will be focused on the development of rapidly-deployable methods to clean up crude oil among coastlines and seas/oceans. Specifics of the challenge will be announced in the coming weeks.

Those interested in learning more about the new prize may contact Francis Beland at francis@xprize.org.