About Us

Who are Challenge Works?

We’re a social enterprise founded by Nesta.

We run challenge prizes that support innovation across the globe.

What does Challenge Works do?

We run challenges prizes that attract innovators to solve some of the world’s biggest problems.

Challenge Works unearths innovations to solve problems that matter. We focus on improving health, climate adaptation and mitigation, and social inclusion. We believe in big ideas. Bold thinking. Creative problem-solving. We believe that great things happen when people come together. That, given the right support, unexpected ideas truly can change the world.

Our partners identify problems that need solving, then we at Challenge Works design prizes to attract radical thinkers who want to solve them. Through a process of rigorous testing and iteration, we’ll design a support system that incentivises progress. As well as a cash prize, we’ll offer unparalleled support as teams progress through each stage. From press and networking to upskilling and access to tech, our challenge prizes are designed to drive fast results, change markets and make the world a better place.

Get in touch to find out more

What have we been up to?

2012
Challenge Works launched
We launched as Nesta’s Centre for Challenge Prizes in 2012.
2012
Ageing Well Challenge
This challenge prize, funded by the Home Office, sought ideas to improve the lives of older people by reducing social isolation or increasing mobility.
2013
Dynamic Demand Challenge
This challenge prize aimed to design new products or services to help reduce carbon emissions by shifting energy demand to off-peak times.
2014
Longitude Prize
his challenge prize aimed to invent an affordable, accurate, fast and easy-to-use test for bacterial infections. Successful solutions allowed health professionals worldwide to administer the right antibiotics at the right time.
2013
Longitude Explorer Prize
The first Longitude Explorer Prize encouraged young people to develop a new generation of satellite applications for social good.
2017
Inventor Prize
This challenge prize was designed to encourage small, at-home inventors to overcome barriers to funding and non-financial support.
2017
Open Up 2017 Challenge
This challenge prize sought products and services to help small businesses save time and money. It was about finding better services, reducing stress and discovering the intelligence in their financial data.
2017
Mobility Unlimited Challenge
This challenge prize incentivised innovators around the world to create advanced technology to support the mobility of people with lower limb paralysis.
2019
CareerTech Challenge Prize
A programme to help people understand the labour market and plan their future careers, using data.
2020
Rapid Recovery Challenge
Launched in response to the pandemic, two challenge prizes aimed to support those who were affected by the economic shock of COVID-19.
2021
Afri-Plastics Challenge
This comprises three challenge prizes aimed to reduce marine plastics in Sub-Saharan African countries. It did it by developing innovative solutions to plastic mismanagement in a way that promotes gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.
2022
Homegrown Innovation Challenge
A $33m USD prize aiming to enable Canadian farmers and producers to sustainably and competitively grow berries out of season.
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What are our objectives?

Create breakthrough innovations

By guiding and incentivising the smartest minds, we create better, more diverse solutions, providing low-risk chances to support long shots, radical ideas and unusual suspects.

Help innovators thrive

We know that great things happen when people come together, so we incentivise creative thinkers in a supportive, open and rewarding environment. Whether they win or not, all our problem-solvers benefit.

Unlock systemic change

The solutions discovered in our challenge prizes go on to shape the future development of markets and technologies. Challenge prizes can help identify best practice, shift regulation and even drive policy change.

Our Challenge Prizes