Inducement prize contest

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An inducement prize contest (IPC) is a competition that awards a cash prize for the accomplishment of a feat, usually of engineering. IPCs are typically designed to extend the limits of human ability. Perhaps the most famous IPC was the Longitude prize, awarded to John Harrison for his highly-accurate marine chronometer.

IPCs are distinct from recognition prizes, such as the Nobel Prize.

Research has show that IPCs can be extremely effective in pushing the advancement of technology. In 2006, there is much interest in prizes for automotive achievement, such as the 250 mpg car.

[edit] List of IPCs

Longitude prize
Prize4Life offers between $15,000 and $5 million in prize awards for medical discoveries that remove the largest barriers to finding a cure for ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease)
Ansari X PRIZE
Automotive X PRIZE
DARPA Grand Challenge
Orteig Prize (crossing Atlantic solo, won by Charles Lindbergh)
Methuselah Mouse Prize
The Clay Mathematics Institute has a Millennium Prize it will award to anyone who provides a solution to one of seven important mathematics problems.
The Foresight Institute offers a $250,000 Feynman Grand Prize for the first persons to design and build two nanotechnology devices - a nano-scale robotic arm and a computing device that demonstrates the feasibility of building a nanotechnology computer.
Virgin Earth Challenge
Peugeot Concours Design
Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition