Dear All,

We hope you have had an amazing festive season and are felling ready to start the New Year full of excitement and energy.


  
You may have noticed that we have already shared the odd bit of news of the things NESTA get up to and indeed we are including them even twice in this mailout!  Well, they do get up to a lot of exciting stuff. Were you aware of the Longitude Prize, the first open innovation challenge, issued by the British Government - in 1714? Now NESTA has launched the Longitude Explorer Challenge in which they invite young people (11-16 years old) to come up with ideas that use navigational and observational data from satellites for social good, not least to inspire them to get involved in and excited about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). The deadline to entry is 31^st of January. If you are older and feel left out, check out the Longitude Prize 2014  which NESTA runs in collaboration with Innovate UK and which is about addressing the challenge of increased resistance to antibiotics. The assessement deadline is 31^st of May. 

The WISE awards 2015 is aiming to build a network of recognized change-makers to inspire change in education. They are looking for innovative projects with creative solutions to today’s education challenges. For more information please download the brochure, the official application form and the Guidelines. You can also find out more here. Applications will be accepted until January 15, 2015. 




We are really excited to help spread the news of ISPIM's freshly created Grand Prize for Excellence in Innovation Management! They are looking to recognise an ambitious, ingenious initiative with impressive results whereby they are more interested in the 'how' than the 'what'. Deadline for entries is April, 20^th2015, the three top entries will be invited to present at next ISPIM's conference in Budapest where conference attendees will decide the final winner. You can find more information on their website.


We have always believed that fun and humour are a very useful part in the innovation armoury (not least because it helps to keep an open mind), so we are especially delighted to share news of 'My Other Future' an initiative for which NESTA has teamed up with Science Showoff. They are looking for volunteers to take on specific futures in a stand-up-comedian format; to quote, "You might be an economist who wants to pull apart the hype around Bitcoin, a cultural theorist who wants to champion experimenting with the Hunger Games or a closet virtual reality geek." You have until 18th January for your chance to stand-up in front of a friendly crowd. See NESTA's website.
 

Is there anyone of us who has never struggled with passwords online?  Where there is a challenge there is an (innovation) opportunity. Wider ILF Community member Jonathan Craymer has taken up the gauntlet and developed a new system for password authentication. Shayype operates on one-time passwords, using patterns instead of passwords AND it requires no additional hardware such as tokens or mobiles.  While it seems almost too simple to be true, it is supported by a highly sophisticated backend.

Here now the particularly exciting bit: Jonathan is offering a few of our community who are using Drupal 7 Websites the opportunity to test out the system! If you would like to find out more visit Shayype's website or contact Jonathan Craymer directly.

Very recently we mentioned the crowdfunding initiative around the solar powered water desalination system. Here is a video that shares a bit of the story - and the link to the crowdfunding website IndieGogo where the campaign remains open until 14th January.