X PRIZE is an educational nonprofit organization whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs, inspiring the formation of new industries, jobs and the revitalization of markets that are currently stalled. Through strategic design of ground-breaking competitions with significant, multi-million-dollar prize purses, X PRIZE intends to spur collaboration to address the issues.

Energy & Environment. X PRIZE’s Energy & Environment Prize Group intends to catalyze a new era of clean, renewable, cost-effective energy with minimal impact on the climate and environment. Areas of consideration include breakthroughs in climate change, water resource management, energy distribution & storage, clean energy, energy efficiency/use.

Areas of interest include:

• Climate Change: CO₂ utilization/sequestration, ocean acidification, forest conservation, forest carbon measurement, emissions, climate modeling.
• Water Resource Management: watershed, sewage, conservation, desalination.
• Energy Distribution & Storage: transmission and distribution (e.g. smart grid), storage (grid level, end user, community), monitoring and measurement.
• Clean Energy: solar/PV, wind, geothermal, hydro, tidal, biofuels.
• Energy Efficiency/Use: smart buildings, transportation, command.
• Aircraft Efficiency: electric/hybrid aircraft, alternative aviation fuels.

The current prize in this area is the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE (PIAXP). XPF’s goal is to inspire a new generation of viable, safe, affordable and super fuel-efficient vehicles that people want to buy. Working with the US Department of Energy, X PRIZE will award $10 million in September 2010 to the teams that win a competition for clean, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 MPG energy equivalent (MPGe).

X PRIZE has received a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a prize resulting in the widespread adoption of clean aviation fuel. The Foundation is also developing a partnership for second-generation small-scale distributed biofuel production technologies.

Exploration (Oceans and Space). The vision of the Exploration Prize Group is to expand the use of space, the oceans and other unexplored frontiers to improve life on Earth.

Areas of interest include:

• Ocean Exploration: sensing (e.g. pH, temperature, current), mapping (e.g. floor, marine spatial mapping).
• Ocean Environment: fisheries/fishing, coral reefs, biodiversity.
• Space Transportation: beamed power propulsion, hypersonic point to point, solar power satellite.
• Space Exploration: orbital debris, asteroid deflection.

The current open prize in this area is the Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP). The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million international competition for the first privately funded team to land a robot on the moon, explore at least 500 meters and beam packages of high-definition video and imagery back to Earth. The competition goal is to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration, thereby opening access to the moon and its valuable resources. GLXP is the largest international prize ever offered.

On 4 October 2004, X PRIZE awarded the largest prize in history, the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE, to aerospace designer Burt Rutan and financier Paul Allen for creation and successful mission of the first private spacecraft, SpaceShipOne. These flights opened the commercial space travel industry. Twenty-six teams from seven nations competed for the prize, spending more than $100 million to win a $10 million prize. Since 2004, public and private entities have invested more than $1.5 billion dollars in support of private spaceflight.

Under consideration is an Ocean prize, focused on research, exploration, conservation, healing.

Life Sciences. The X PRIZE Life Sciences Prize Group is designed to investigate specific opportunities to improve disease diagnosis and treatment, and to extend healthy living. Areas of consideration include breakthroughs in neurobiology, Human 2.0 devices, personalized medicine, and physician augmentation/telemedicine.

Areas of interest include:

• Neurobiology: brain-computer interface, imaging, learning, memory, consciousness, decision making.
• Human 2.0 Devices: bionics (assistive and additive), artificial skin/limb/joints/sensory substitutes (e.g. prosthetic eye, haptics).
• Personalized Medicine: risk assessment, disease prevention, early detection, therapy, response monitoring, Tx/Rx development.
• Healthcare Advancement: cost of care/reimbursement, quality of care, compliance, disease surveillance, electronic medical records.
• Physician Augmentation/Telemedicine: artificial intelligence physician, disease prevention, patient diagnosis, acute care management, disease management.

The current prize in this area is the Archon Genomics X PRIZE. The $10 million Archon Genomics X PRIZE will be awarded to the first team that can build a device and use it to sequence 100 human genomes within 10 days or less. There must be no more than one error in every 100,000 bases sequenced, with sequences accurately covering at least 98 percent of the genome. This must be achieved at a recurring cost of no more than $10,000 per genome. This prize and the resulting technology can help bring about an era of personalized medicine. With this information, participants may learn of genetic medical conditions to which they’re susceptible so they may take preventive steps to avoid illness, rather than trying to cure conditions after the fact.

Under development is a Tuberculosis Diagnostics prize. The overall goal of the prize will be to promote better management of the world’s second most lethal infectious disease in under-developed regions. In 2006 there were more than nine million new cases of TB worldwide.

Education & Global Development. X PRIZE’s Education and Global Development prize group will address major challenges in agriculture, capital, education, health and water. The goal of these competitions will be to highlight the most scalable enterprises that can stimulate economic growth and uplift the widest set of stakeholders from poverty.

Areas of consideration include breakthroughs in education technologies, education systems and structures, clean energy production and storage, hunger and agriculture, poverty abatement, water and sanitation.

Areas of interest include:

• Education Technologies: literacy, numeracy, STEM achievement, online education, primers/learning technologies.
• Education Systems and Structures: charter schools, magnet schools, self-sustaining schools, early learning vs. middle school vs. high school vs. university, standards, curriculum, teacher effectiveness, certification.
• Hunger and Agriculture: agricultural productivity, food aid, importation.
• Poverty Abatement: housing, import/export, regional integration/common markets, entrepreneurship, microfinance.
• Water and Sanitation: water access, water quality, sewage/wastewater, watershed.